Well, here it is, April 8 and we still have lots of snow on the ground and in fact received another 6 inches between Thursday night and Sunday. This has been one of the longest winters EVER--snow came in October, huge dump in November, snow fell on a regular basis though March, 2 big dumps of snow in March and here we are still seeing snow! Blech! We've had hints of spring since February, but then we always get a cold dash of winter. Everyone up here is heartily sick of this winter and wants spring so badly!!
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| This is spring? This is April? |
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| Kind of pretty though! |
It's been a stressful time since Christmas too. To keep things brief: Dave ended up being flown by STARS Air Ambulance from Olds to Calgary's Foothills Hospital and eventually was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure. This resulted in them performing an angioplasty and putting in stents. He had several blockages--one was 100%, another 90$, and a third 60%. I think he had a really close call and was not far away from a heart attack or a stroke happening. He's doing fine now. In the midst of this I was getting a puppy from Ray Lavelle of Erte Collies, who lives in Minnesota. We sure had our trials and tribulations: the Canadian government giving different information on bringing a dog into Canada; most airlines having temperature restrictions for shipping live animals (and you can imagine that Edmonton and Minneapolis in January were not going to fit those restrictions!!!); finding an airline that would fly but getting conflicting info on where the little puppy would be routed and finding out that he'd come in after Custom's hours and have to be kenneled in Calgary. Not happening!!! Ray was willing to drive to Winnipeg, Manitoba with the puppy, getting all the necessary papers and an expedited passport, while I flew to Winnipeg, picked up the puppy and flew home with him on a non-stop flight all in one day. It was bitterly cold in "Winterpeg" that day (January 23)--in the -30's for a high! Meanwhile a blizzard blew into Edmonton and our flight home took a lot longer because we were flying into a head wind and when we got home, there were drifts to shovel out. But we made it!!
The puppy is Erte Lanark Ladd, call name Lanny. He adorable, so easy love, pretty easy to train, doesn't have very much stubbornness (unlike Duffy!), but is kind of a slob!! It's hard enough to house train a dog in our winters--you just don't pop the puppy outside, you get on coat, gloves, shoes, and take him out--but a puppy that doesn't mind his mess, that eats his poop (ewwww), and even drags his bed and toys into his mess, is a bit much!! Duffy was so different--very fastidious, after a few days knew not to pee on his bed, and after 2 weeks made no messes in the pen. At 5 months Duffy was free to roam the house all the time, even when I was out and he never made a mess. With Lanny, maybe when he's a year old, he might be free to roam??? Hahaha!!
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| Lanny's 1st full day here. |
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| Lanny loves to climb the snow piles and run and explore on top of the snow in the garden!! |
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| Posey Lanny ♥ |
Meanwhile, there has been lots of shovelling and lots of sore backs!! We're waiting for spring to really arrive. I'm thrilled to have 2 collies and can hardly wait to get back to herding lessons and having Lanny in the conformation ring!!
Spring, can you hear me?????? Please arrive and stay!!!
