Missing Joe - 10 Years On

It was 10 years ago this week that we said good bye to Mark's dad, Joe Collis.  He wasn't a Joseph (despite my dad really wanting to call him Joseph!), he was "just Joe." He used to his joke that his parents couldn't afford to give him a middle name.

I met Joe the week after he had buried his lovely wife Ida.  He was pretty much shattered by her death.  Joe's body was beaten up from the many months of taking care of his Ida while ALS ravaged her body.  That first time I met Joe, he was pretty frail and still in shock over Ida's death.  I was pretty nervous about meeting him, not just because he was Mark's dad but because the meeting was happening so soon after the death of his wife. Mark's niece and nephew were there (we met for dinner) and that helped break the ice and put us all at ease.  About half way through dinner, Joe leaned toward Mark and loudly whispered, "I don't think she's Jewish."  I smiled and pretended not to hear.  Mark just glared at his dad and then we both laughed.

Even though I was a shiksa, Joe accepted me and we developed a friendship.  He allowed me into his life and accepted that I was in love with his son and was probably going to be around for a while. 

When we opened our restaurant in Kingston, named "Ida's Kitchen" to honour his bride, he was thrilled.  We even had Ida's Kitchen business cards made up for him (her face was our logo).  Joe and I had long conversations in the years that followed about their love story (Ida was 16 when they married and they needed a special document signed by her parents to give them permission to marry)  and their wonderful life together (winters spent in Florida, summers in Belle Ewart, cruises, trips, every day things...).  He never got over her death and I know he believed that they'd be reunited when he passed away.  I don't believe that but I'm so glad that he took comfort from that idea.  After almost 60 years of marriage, he hung around for another 7 without her.

About 2 years after Mark had moved to Kingston, Joe decided to make the move too.  We were really happy to have him close by.  Mark and I wanted to be able to help him out and keep an eye on him.  Looking back, I'm so grateful that we had those years together with Joe in Kingston.  I really got to know him and love him.  Mark and Joe always had a tense relationship (Mark was much closer to Ida than he'd been to Joe) but I know that they both loved each other even if they didn't like to talk about stuff like that.

I miss Joe a lot.  There have been so many times over the years when I have thought, "boy Joe would love that!" and I have to remind myself that he's not here.  It makes me really sad to think that Joe and Ida and now, both of their sons are all gone now.  10 years is a long time.  It's longer than I even knew Joe. He really was one of the good guys and I'm sure I'm not the only one who is missing him and remembering him this week. 

family reunion

Today we had a little family reunion of sorts.

Mark's nephew Ryan was in town with his wife and son.  We met them for breakfast and had a nice visit.  We hadn't seen them in 3 years so it was good to see them, particularly little Malcolm.

15 years ago today, Mark's mum, Ida, passed away.  Spending time with family was good for Mark, I think it made the day a lot less sad.  Hopefully we won't have to wait another 3 years to see them again.

As they were leaving, we gave them a big box full of books, photos and some religious articles that belonged to Mark's dad Joe and Joe's dad, Harry. I think Ryan was surprised by how old some of things were but it's nice to see them going to family who are actually still connected to Judaism in a sort of formal way.  I think Joe would approve anyway.

Chemo - Round 5

It almost feels like we're starting to get the hang of this chemo stuff, at least the clinic part anyway.  When I arrive to meet Mark, I no longer need to give my name, the ladies in the reception area know me. 

This week's visit to the Cancer Clinic was quiet.  It was nice actually after the last couple of visits.  Even though it was only the 5th time we've been there (and I think there are folks there who have visited the place a lot more than we have), you quickly get into a routine with it.

During today's visit, there was a newbie receiving her orientation information (while she received her first treatment).  It was interesting to hear the conversation and we chuckled quietly to ourselves at parts of it.  We have both learned a lot, through trial and error, about how to deal with certain aspects of chemo and much of the advice we received during Mark's first treatment was not super helpful.  The orientation does give you a basic starting point though.  The rest of it, you just figure out as you go along.

In other, non-chemo news, today is the 48th Anniversary of the day my parents were married.  Happy Anniversary Mum & Dad!!

Happy Birthday M.D.S.

Today is my dad's birthday.  If you would like to know how old he is, I'll just say this, he was born the same day and year as Barbra Streisand. 

I love this picture of us.  My mum told me that I had measles when this picture was taken (I think it's Easter weekend 1968). 

When we were little, my dad was SO MUCH FUN.  Seriously, he would play games with us, be silly with us, actually act like a kid.  Looking back, from the ripe old age of 46 I realize now that he was not much more than a kid himself.  He was 25 when I was born.  When I think about some of the stunts I pulled when I was in my 20's, I can see why he was so much fun.  I can remember him getting into water fights with the neighours, building us wooden stilts, creating an elaborate slide made of ice in the winter, waking me up late at night to watch old movies with him... we may not have had all of the money in the world but looking back, we didn't miss out on a thing.

Happy Birthday Dad, or, as Aunt Marge Quigley would write, "Happy Birthday M.D.S." I love you to the moon and back!!

Grandpa Shanks

This is my favourite photo of me and my grandpa.

I know I have shared it here before.

He passed away when I was 17, I was probably around 2 when this photo was taken, on Merrick Street in Smiths Falls.

Today is his birthday and while it's not the only day of the year that I think about him, I think about him often, it seems more significant to share a photo or a memory about him on April 20.

For the last few years of his life, my grandpa lived with us.  He had sold the family house in Smiths Falls and moved to Amherstview after my grandma passed away.  Him living with us provided my brother and I with a special opportunity my cousins didn't have.  Probably because he lived with us and likely because we were a bit older than most of our cousins, we have more memories about him.  When you live with someone every day, and, in particular, when you help to be a care giver to someone at the end of their life, you get to know them as a person and not a mythic grandparent.  I feel priviledged to have known my grandpa as a man, wise and honourable, strong and principled.  I wish that we had a few more years together, so he could have known me as an adult and so I could have known him better.

To me, it's almost unbelievable that it is almost 30 years since he passed away.  It almost seems unreal.  I take comfort in knowing that in the end, he understood how much we loved and respected him.  Happy Birthday Grandpa.

Introducing Gracie

Introducing Gracie
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Four years ago today, we welcomed a sweet, frightened, timid Sheltie girl named "Gracie Mae" into our home.

She's changed so much since that first day when she shook like a leaf in my arms as we drove home with her. As frightened as she was, she ran toward Sam as soon as she spotted him in our backyard. They were fast friends from the second they laid eyes on each other.

In the four years since she adopted us, we dropped the Mae and have watched her evolve into a more confident dog. She herds all of us, Sam included and now accepts tummy rubs and ear scratched (on her own terms) and is always happy to meet new people. Gracie is one of the kissy-est dogs I've ever met and I can't imagine our lives without her in them.

Happy Barkaversary Sweet Gracie and thank you for making our world a better place!

missing Kathy

Spring 1972
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Four years ago today, my strong, sweet, beautiful cousin Kathy lost her long-fought battle with brain cancer. We lost her far too soon and still miss her every day. This picture of Kathy and me was taken in the spring of 1972, over 40 years ago. Yikes.

Been thinking about her a lot over the weekend, about cancer and illness and how many people in our life are fighting right now.

In Kathy's honour, I'm trying to focus on the good times and remember all of the goofy stuff we did as kids together. Usually we would see each other at my nana's house on Jasper Avenue in Smiths Falls. Nana is gone now too, almost 15 years this fall. It's hard to believe how quickly time passes sometimes. Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday that it happened. I don't think that you ever get over a loss like that.

Best we can hope for is to laugh more often than we cry when we look at back at those we've lost.

first friends

Summer of 1968
Originally uploaded by Julep67

When you are the first born child in a family, your first real friends are your cousins. My first friend was my cousin Kathy Forbes. She was two years older than me and she was also the first born child in her family. Eventually, we would both become big sisters to younger brothers named Patrick.

I've been thinking about Kathy a lot this week. She passed away 3 years ago today, after a long, hard-fought battle with brain cancer. She was 43 years old.

This morning when I got up, I poured a coffee and started going through some photo albums my parents had put together for me a few years ago. I had a good time looking at the old family pictures of us kids. All of us look like kids, children and parents alike.

I scanned the first of what I expect will become many batches of photos from those albums and put them on flickr. I plan to share them with my cousins because I'm sure that some of them have either not been seen in a while or not seen at all by them.

In other news, today is Gracie's birthday. She's 4. Sam turns 4 on Monday. They got to have chicken for dinner and a fancy organic dog cookie for a treat earlier today. It's a dog life around here for sure.

Via Flickr:
me and my cousin Kathy, hanging at Grandma Forbes' house during the summer of 1968.

Joe

Joe
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Last week's birthday celebrations did not got exactly as I'd thought that they would.

First of all, birthday Tiffany was out of the country on her birthday. She was whooping it up in Vegas, lucky girl. This meant though that I did not get to talk to her on her birthday or wish her a happy birthday, in person, 2 days late, at Lucia's birthday party.

Speaking of Lucia's birthday party, we stayed about 45 minutes and then left. Unfortunately, Mark quit work a little early on Wednesday afternoon because he had a migraine. He still had one on Thursday morning and could not shake it. By the time I finished work on Thursday (he'd stayed home), he was feeling better, still fragile but better. We decided we would try to go to the party. It was being held at an absolutely fabulous restaurant downtown. We were the first to arrive (which surprised us). They were expecting about 25 people and it was WARM in the room already. Warm is not good for a migraine sufferer. Once folks started to arrive and order drinks, I could see Mark turning green. The perfumes, the alcohol, the kitchen smells, it was getting to be too much. We stayed long enough to have a very quick visit with Lucia's parents and her grandparents and then we left.

On the way home, we stopped off at Dong Nai for soup but even that didn't help Mark. I'd never seen him so sick and he almost never had a migraine for 2 days. Awful stuff. Friday morning, fortunately, he felt better and went back to work.

We had a pretty good weekend, did lots of stuff around the house, got some errands done. We thought a lot about Mark's dad Joe too. He passed away 3 years ago this weekend. It's really difficult for me to believe that 3 years have passed but they have. I think about Joe all of the time, sometimes at silly times, often times when Mark is cooking and I think about much Joe loved good food. We miss him, lots. 3 years, crazy.

recycling

lantern
Originally uploaded by Julep67

For our wedding, we bought a bunch of little battery operated, paper lanterns which were hung in the tents. They just offered a little splash of colour to an otherwise drab canopy. We also bought the pictured larger version of the lanterns and hung it in our gazebo (with strings of teeny tiny paper lanterns hung around the perimeter). It was simple and, I thought, pretty.

The battery operated paper lanterns should be in Alberta today I think. The lanterns will be used to decorate the site of my cousin Kelly's wedding in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta on Saturday. Her mum and dad (my lovely Auntie Karen & Uncle Mike) were transporting them to Alberta. I think it's going to be a surprise (but I also think that Kelly is too busy to read this so that's okay) for Kelly. I was just really happy to think that even though Mark and I couldn't get to Alberta for Kelly's wedding, our wedding lanterns could.

We enjoyed a nice long weekend here. Mark and I both took Friday off so we'd have a four-day break. On Friday, we spent a good sized chunk of the day running errands. We did get to visit my parents as well and pick up yet another fabulous wedding gift which had been left at their house. A family friend made us a beautiful quilt, I still cannot get over how generous and thoughtful folks have been. I'm enjoying it but it's so much more than I imagined!

Unfortunately, for the last couple of days (Monday and Tuesday), I was laid up feeling crappy. It was a combo of allergy weirdness, stomach wonkyness and my back misbehaving. I'm back at work today but am on the heating pad and am not moving much more than I absolutely have to. Tomorrow will be better than today has been. Friday will be better than Thursday, I know this because I deal with this once or twice a year. It's never fun but it always goes away, in time.

So that's the news from me for now. I will warn you though, we saw District 9 over the weekend and it's seriously the best movie I've seen since Slumdog Millionaire (and I don't usually like sci-fi movies) so I plan to rave a lot about it when I have more time. Be prepared!!

grandparents in training

Uncle Rod and Aunt Mary
Originally uploaded by Julep67

So, it's September. How awesome is that!?

There are many things to love about September:

- sunny lovely amazing weather
- tomatoes are tasting better now than they do all year
- new lunch boxes (my old one finally bit the dust after 10 years and I broke down and bought myself a snazzy new one)
- babies - a friend of mine had a baby girl yesterday (yay) and my cousin and his wife (the son of my gorgeous aunt and uncle pictured here) announced that they are expecting their first child
- long weekends and then some (taking tomorrow off and enjoying a four day weekend)
- new fences and gates at our dog park - extra safety is always a good thing

So yeah, 3 days in, September is already shaping up to be possibly the best month of the year!

happy birthday grandpa

me and my grandpa
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Today is the birthday of my grandfather, Lawrence Shanks.

I've been thinking about him a lot more than I usually do lately. Partly because today is his birthday and partly because of a review I read about the coffee shop at St Joseph's Oratory.. Thanks Ralph!

I often think about my grandfather. He was a really cool and smart guy and he was a massive Habs fan (just like my dad is) so I know he'd be happy that they're in the play offs this year. My grandfather died almost 25 years ago and I still miss him.

So yeah, before I start to water up and the screen goes all blurry, I just wanted to say Happy Birthday grandpa!

weekend update

gracie and sam
Originally uploaded by Julep67

I sure hope you like doggie photos because you can expect to see even more of them here. We have double the number of puppies at home so, it makes sense that I'll be taking double the number of photos of said puppies.

The weekend went very well. We all slept well on Friday night (Gracie in her crate, Sam on his bed) and spent Saturday all together, hanging out in the yard or in the house "bonding." Sam and Grace are doing lots of playful puppy wrestling. After they bore of that, they'll either attack rawhide chews or just lie in a sunbeam. It's really cute how well they are getting along. I love that small as Gracie is, she's scrappy.

Yesterday, I rearranged the furniture so that they'd have more open space to roar around in. They way they were tussling on Saturday, I was afraid that someone would be body checked into the furniture and get injured. It was a good excuse to clean too. I'm such a bad house keeper that unless I'm rearranging the furniture, I rarely worry about behind the sofa.

On Friday night, we had 86 kids at our door. We were down almost 50% from last year. Not sure what happened there, the weather was great but maybe because it was a Friday, more folks went to parties. Mark kept the dogs in the basement while I shelled out. Gracie was really good and sat under his desk, on his feet. Sam, on the other hand, stayed at the top of the stairs and barked every time someone came to the door.

Some of the costumes I saw were pretty cute although I was a little disturbed by the number of "pimps" I saw. I guess they are this year's "Harry Potter" because I didn't have one HP at the door all night.

This week, I'm going to see if I can work full days each day. I'm almost finished with my second course of antibiotics and am feeling a bit better. I still don't have a lot energy later in the day but I'm not too bad early in the day. It will get better, day by day, I know.

ethan

ethan
Originally uploaded by Julep67

All day yesterday, I suppose because of the anxiety I'd felt for the few days preceeding, I was exhausted. We slept in a little bit but I wanted to get up and get going with my chores because I was heading back to work.

In the mid-afternoon, chores done, Mark and I sat down to veg out and watch "The Big Lebowski." About 10 minutes into it, I fell asleep for about 5 minutes. I forced myself to wake up though because I thought that if I took a nap, I'd be up all night. I was so wrong!! I not only didn't take the nap, I didn't sleep last night. If I did, it was in 10 minute increments. Not fun.

Saturday wasn't a whole lot of fun either. My cousin's funeral was at 11 a.m. The day turned out to be sunny and warm which was nice for those of us who had to travel from out of town. The whole thing was just really really sad. I mean, I know that funerals generally are sad but there is a difference between attending the funeral of someone who lived to a ripe old age and someone who lived too short a life. My mum told me that the funeral home guessed that 700 to 800 folks visited on Friday. The church was packed on Saturday morning. I think that there very few people in the small town who didn't either know my cousin directly, or who knew her folks or brother.

The only really "good" thing I can think that came out of it was that it became a mini-family-reunion (as these things to). My 88 year old Great-Uncle Herbie (and he's not just a great uncle, he's an awesome uncle!) was there, my cousin Dave flew in from Calgary, I saw my Great-Uncle Jack and Great-Auntie Muff... I'd not seen any of these folks since 1997 when my grandmother died.

I hate how it happens that folks only gather like that during a funeral. Fortunately, next month, this same branch of the family will gather in Quebec for a wedding. It'll be good to see folks under happy circumstances. I hear that there's even going to be a dance contest with a 5lb Hershey bar as the prize for the first place couple. Hell, if the possibility of 5lbs of chocolate can't make us all feel better, nothing will!

ready for a tummy rub

ready for a tummy rub
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Today is Sam's birthday. He's had a pretty good birthday-week I think. Even though we had to slide out of town for a few hours earlier today (to attend my cousin's wake - more about that later), he had an awesome breakfast of eggs and turkey, got a gigantic raw hide bone/toy to chew on and went to the dog park twice. Not bad huh?? Between trips out of town and visits to the groomers, he's had a pretty much fun-packed 2 weeks. I must say we have too, at least up until the past couple of days.

The death of my cousin has bothered me a lot more than I thought it would. I guess I figured that because she'd been so sick, for so long, that when the time finally came, I'd be okay (or as okay as you are in these situations). Right now though, I think I feel a little bit relieved. See, this afternoon, we went to the visitation and I saw her husband and parents for the first time since she'd died. I hadn't actually seen them in a while and it was tough. See, her parents are my godparents, her dad is my mum's oldest brother and I knew that when I saw him, I'd lose it. I promised myself I wouldn't but when I hugged him, I totally lost my composure on him. He just laughed when I said, "I promised myself I wouldn't do this" because I think everyone was saying that to him. He's been a rock through all of this stuff. I hope that in a few days, he can collapse into a puddle for a while (if that's what he needs - I think it's what I would need).

There were dozens of people there when we arrived. We stood in line for about an hour waiting to get into the room. By the time we were near the door way, we heard that they had started turning folks away and asking them to come back to the evening session. It was not something I'd ever seen before. Of course, all of her mum's siblings were there, with their children and grandchildren. I'd forgotten how large their family was. It was really overwhelming. Seeing my family though, did help and I feel like I'll be able to retain some semblance of cool tomorrow and keep things together. I'm not saying that I won't have dozens of tissues in my pockets but I think I'll be a little less rattled. I hope so anyway.

the photographers

the photographers
Originally uploaded by Julep67

This photo is a few years old, I guess it's five years old now that I think about it. I took it on Easter Weekend 2003 at my Aunt Mary's home. My Aunt Karen & Uncle Mike were home from out west and as much of the family as we could muster were gathered at the Cooks' for Easter Dinner.

The story behind this photo is that everyone was taking a photo of my mum and her siblings (from left to right, the photographers are Meg - daughter of Mary - my mum's sister; Karen - wife of Mike - my mum's younger brother; Kathy - daughter of John - my mum's older brother; and my dad). I think that this was the last photo I had taken of Kathy and it's always made me smile because when I turned around, it was like looking at some paparazzi.

Kathy died earlier today. She had fought a very long battle with a malignant brain tumor. I think it was about 10 years ago now that she was first diagnosed. Kathy, her husband Jeff and her parents (my godparents) went to hell and back with this disease but the fight is now over for them.

Kathy was my first, first cousin. She was the oldest grandchild on my mum's side, I was the second oldest. This morning, I went through old family photos of us when we were kids. Looking at the pair of us in so many photos, we couldn't have looked more different: Kathy had gorgeous, long dark hair, I had my little blond pixie cuts. Most of the time, I was in a yellow dress and Kathy was in a purple dress. In a few of the photos of the two of us, we were up in a tree in our Nana's yard and I have to say, those are my best memories of my time spent with Kathy as a child... climbing Nana's tree and colouring the bark with our Crayola 64.

Tonight I talked to my cousin Meg on the phone for a while. We were talking about Kathy's love of all things purple and we've both decided to not wear black to Kathy's funeral on Saturday. We'll both be wearing purple, for Kathy, and if anyone has a problem with that, well, they can just suck it.

Meeting Austin

austin
Originally uploaded by Julep67

While I was out of town on the weekend with my mum (at the shower), I had an opportunity to finally meet my cousin Kelly's son, Austin. He's 8 and this is the first time we've met, sad or what!?

He's visiting my Aunt & Uncle (his grandparents) here in Ontario. Austin lives with his mum in Alberta and, until last September, my Aunt & Uncle lived there too. I can't imagine what a huge adjustment it was for them all to be so far away from each other. It also explains why I haven't met Austin before. I think the last time I saw his mum was in 1997 when my grandmother died.

When we saw Austin, my mum grabbed him for a hug (she's met him several times on visits out west). I introduced myself and shook his hand. I think he was a little surprised (he seemed braced for another hug) but was cool with that. After a while, we deserted the "grown ups" and went down to the basement to play a game on the computer.

I'm not sure if this is your experience or not but I kind of like how, even at the ripe old age of 41, I can still hang at the kids table.

shower ladies

shower ladies
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Over the weekend, I travelled to Smiths Falls with my folks for a bridal shower. The shower was for my cousin Tim's partner, Sarah. They are getting all hitched up in September and this shower was held by our arm of the family.

It was a much smaller shower than the last one I'd been to and that was okay with me. Games were kept to a minimum, the food was tasty and everyone was very friendly and sweet. Just like you'd expect from us!! Interestingly, it was my cousin Pat's daughter first time at an "all-girl party." She's about 4 I think and seemed to be enjoying herself and was super well behaved for someone so young.

Of course, going out of town on Saturday sort of threw a hole into the weekend and a lot of stuff I try to get out of the way early in the weekend had to be postponed until Sunday. We still managed to get Sam out to the park a few times (in between errands and rain showers) and got a shitload of stuff accomplished around the house. I'm constantly amused at how much more stuff you can get done when you're forced to do it in a shorter period of time.

So for now, at least, the yard looks good. We're on vacation next week and I suspect that we'll be back out there puttering some more but in the meantime, I'm trying to get my desk cleaned off and to not look at the clock too much.

giant sleeping fur ball

giant sleeping fur ball
Originally uploaded by Julep67

it's been a busy couple of days around here.

on Thursday, poor Sam was sick. Well, not sick so much as inconvenienced. When we went out in the morning for a poo, he was constipated and was really whiney and obviously in discomfort. Eventually, with the help of some olive oil and extra food, we were able to get things moving. The culprit was a piece of string, most likely ingested during the great living room fiasco of the day before.

Mark stayed home with him during the morning and eventually everything was okay although a bath happened in the process. Mark discovered that Sam loves baths so that's something at least.

Yesterday, poor Mark was sick. His kidney stone (the last one!) is on the move again and is causing him to experience all kinds of back pain. He's on the heating pad right now and that seems to be helping.

Anyway, we're up early this morning because Sam is finally on our work routine and that means everyone is up at 5! I'm thinking that later on, it's naps for everyone!!

Teddy

Teddy
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Today has been a very good day.

Right now, as I type this, I've got Abbey Road on the stereo and a sleeping puppy at my feet. LIfe is good.

I think it's pretty much a given that my posts will be a little puppy-centric for a while.

We had a pretty full day and it was full of firsts for Sam. Since we got him home, he's not met any new folks (although he did bark at a lady who came to the door yesterday trying to sell us a little bit of religion - it was hard to discourage him but we did).

This afternoon, my parents came over for Easter lunch. My mum always does the holiday meals but we thought that it would be a nice change for her to not have to cook or to clean up. When they arrived, Sam was really a good boy. He didn't bark too much, although he wanted to. We have been using some of the Cesar Millan tips we picked up from his show and they are working rather well. I was able to calm him down after Mark got him to sit. He was pretty nervous when they came into the house but eventually he settled down.

For whatever reason, he never really warmed up to my dad. He would go to my mum, very cautiously but even when my dad was offering him a cookie, he wouldn't go near him. I'm sure that the next time we see them, it'll be easier. Sam has had a lot of changes to experience this weekend.

He was pretty well behaved all through dinner. I gave him his kong bone with some peanut butter in it when we sat down and when he was tired of that, he had a nap on the floor in the kitchen (where we were eating).

After mum and dad left, Mark cleaned up the kitchen. We had decided that we should go out for an hour again today, like we did yesterday. I put the crate in the hallway, in, I thought, the same spot Mark and done yesterday. Sam whimpered a bit when we left but he stopped it by the time we were in the driveway. When we pulled into the driveway an hour later, guess who was smiling at us from the living room window? Yeah, Sam. He was pretty happy to see us and we realized that he had been able to get himself between the crate and the wall and therefore out of the kitchen and into the living room.

We didn't have any accidents so, no harm done this time, right? When I walked into the kitchen, Mark was holding a plate in his hand. "How many eggs were on this plate?" I looked and realized that two halves of a hard-boiled egg were missing. Mark had left them on the table. Sam also ate about a cup of cooked potato which was on the table as well. So yeah, no holistic puppy food for him tonight.

This photo is of another puppy. His name was Teddy and he was my aunt's puppy. He was a spitz pekinese and looks a lot like Sam. My mum kindly scanned her Teddy photos and I posted them with our pet photos on flickr.