Lost PawZ has been found!

Yesterday, while out for a walk, we noticed a rubber dog bootie which had been placed on the edge of an electrical box close to our home. It was a red bootie, a PawZ to be precise. These booties come in different sizes, red being for Cooper's size.  Those are the boots Cooper wore in the winter and he lost two of them during our many walks:  one was found by us across the street where we live and the other one was never found until yesterday.....  No other dogs in the neighbourhood wore these booties during the winter so someone must have found it while raking grass or something.  The person who found it probably doesn't know where we live but has seen us on our many walks in the area and thought about placing the bootie where we could see it (the electrical box is one of Cooper's favorite spot to do his business). This sounds like a nice story .... but it makes me feel good to think that someone may actually have wanted us to find that bootie yesterday.  So, the story of the lost PawZ has been pawzitively resolved....

Another week has come and gone.  Lots of email exchanges with regards to the building of our log home, lots of decisions that have to be made but it's all coming together.  Matt's brother, John, started building the fireplace.  Most of the windows were installed and the roof is almost ready for the shingles. The final drawings of our kitchen, pantry and bathroom vanities were approved. We are going to Huntsville this week to meet with a few landscapers.  We will also meet with our plumber to go over the fixtures that we need.  We also need to go to the post office to set up the mailbox and finally we want to check out Happy Tails, which is a daycare for dogs, highly recommended by Deerhurst. So lots to do during this trip. We will be away for one night.  During that time, Cooper will be staying with Nathan and Darlah, and their dogs, at Talemakers. This will be his first time away from us for an entire day and night.  He should be fine, although I suspect he will miss us (at least I hope he does).  The big question is:  how will we be without him?  No doubt that we will be thinking of him but we know he will be in good hands.

Speaking of Cooper, he graduated from Level 3 Obedience this past Thursday.  He did very well and the teachers told us how impressed they were with the progress they have seen in him since he started his training a few months ago.  We will continue his daily training at home and perhaps find another course for him to attend once we are in Huntsville.  His recall is much better to the point that we decided to try something yesterday:  after our walk, Russell stayed with Cooper at the end of our driveway while I went to the front door.  I then called him and Russell let go of the leash.  Cooper immediately ran to me.  We felt it was safe to do since he was running towards our front door as opposed to the street.  We would never let go of the leash otherwise.  Many dog owners let their dogs off leash on our street.  Some dogs have a perfect recall, some don't.  It is a big risk to take unless you are absolutely sure that your dog will come when called.

The weather is starting to warm up and it feels good.  This afternoon, we will go for a ride in the Corvette, the first time this year, and the first time with Cooper.  It will be interesting to see how he reacts to the noise and the wind with the top down.

View from Southwest corner....doors on, cold roof system being installed.

Decorative trusses in Muskoka room.

John Davidson working on fireplace.

That's it for this week's blog.  I hope you enjoy these few pictures of our house in progress taken this past week.