One year ago today.....

September 23, 2011 was my last day at work.  I can't believe it's been one year since I retired.  Wow! So much has happened in one year:  we got our little Cooper, we built a house, we sold a house and moved to Huntsville and lots happened in between these events.  It's all been good, with some ups and downs but mostly ups and with no regrets.

This past week was good.  We had our "meet and greet" appointment with Dr. Jason, Cooper's vet.  What a nice doctor.  We spent 40 minutes with him and chatted away.  He took the time to examine Cooper, listened to his heart, felt his joints and thought he was a healthy little dog. He also checked his teeth and was impressed.  Cooper still weighs 17 pounds and that is a good weight for him.  Dr. Jason thought he was lean and really liked his coat.  One of the things we wanted to talk to Dr. Jason about was whether we should give Cooper the Leptospirosis vaccine.  There is a lot of pros and cons with the vaccine especially for small dogs.  We have done a lot of research so we were well prepared for a discussion with the vet.  In the end, we made the decision to give him the vaccine and it was done on the spot.  The decision was made not because we live in Huntsville, if anything we should have had it done while we lived in Mississauga. Leptospirosis is more often than not due to exposure to racoons and what they leave behind....and we know that the racoon population is actually very high in Mississauga.  All this to say, that we feel good about our decision.  It goes without saying that we were concerned about a possible reaction as it can happen but Cooper had none. After the vet visit, we actually went for a walk on a trail that happens to be close to  Dr. Jason's office so that if something happened we wouldn't have far to go.  When we got home, there was a phone message from Dr. Jason who wanted to know how Cooper was.  We thought it was very nice of him to take the time to call.

Cooper went to day care on Tuesday.  He spent 4 hours playing with his new found friend Brenna.  It poured rain that day so they played mostly in the house. Russell and I had planned on doing some work outside but the rain stopped us.  Instead, we went shopping and I made some soup. When we picked up Cooper in the afternoon,  he was happy to see us and slept for a few hours once he got home.  He will go back to daycare this week.  It is good for him to be with other dogs and we plan on doing this on a regular basis.

The rest of the week was quiet.  It rained quite a bit so we did not go on many walks. On Wednesday, Alex, the blacksmith, delivered the screen, grate and tools for our fireplace.  They are beautiful.  We had our first fire and it was nice.  We had a gas fireplace in Mississauga so we had forgotten what it was like to have a real fire.  The smell of burning wood is so nice.  Russell bought an axe so we can now split the wood that is piled up in front of our house.

On Friday morning, the phone rang, and it was my good friend Diane calling all the way from Geneva. It was so nice to talk to her.  We miss seeing Diane and George.  Hopefully, during one of their trips to Canada in 2013, we can have a visit.

We ended the week with a visit from Gord and Karen yesterday.  The weather was rainy and windy but we had a fire going so it was toasty in the house.

Today will be a quiet day. It is a beautiful Sunday morning, sunny and 2 Celsius.  When the temperature warms up, we will go for a nice walk and enjoy the fall colours.  The leaves are starting to change quite quickly now.

First fire in the fireplace John Davidson made....very impressive design/construction and super efficient..thanks John!

Alex Otto, master blacksmith - delivers our screen, grate and tools...awesome workmanship!

Have a good week everyone!