Wow! In a blink of an eye the summer is gone! How did you spend your summer?
Well, we completed 9 scheduled sits between May and October in Canada for 2022. Here are some of the highlights.
Our first house/pet sit was for 2 weeks starting mid-May. It was in the south-west area of Calgary, with a loveable 11-year-old Bichon named Rosie and her 16 yr. old cat sister Bunny. Their parents Cathy & Allan were off to France. Cathy and Allan are a lovely couple with a beautiful home close to everything one could possibly want and two cute pets to love. We enjoyed our walks with Rosie and barely saw Bunny, when we did, she was usually hissing at us, warning us to stay away, lol. Didn’t stop me from trying to get to know her.
Then off to the Okanagan town of Summerland, British Columbia for the month of June. Our hosts Wanda & Eric were off to France & Spain. We sat in their home, with a spectacular view of Okanagan Lake and we had the pleasure of looking after their 4 Spanish water dogs; 3 ladies Opium, ChaCha, Rumba and one boy Campe. Oh, what a boy he was! Always playful! Loved his ball and kongs. Plenty of walking done during this sit, uphill both ways, lol. We were amazed by the changes in Wanda’s gardens during our month-long stay, the variety of plants and flowers amazing. Oh, and the fresh orchard cherries that were available just as we were departing, what a treat.
July 11th, we headed east to Ontario. Our first sit was for 10 days in Oakville Ontario July 20 -30th. Our hosts Juanita & Alex were off to Columbia for Juanita’s brother’s wedding. Juanita travelled before our arrival, so Alex received and prepared a BBQ for us. Our charge this time was an almost 2-year-old canine named Oreo. It was pretty obvious Oreo’s parents (I think mostly Juanita) have spent some time training him. He rang a doorbell when he wanted to go outside and again when he wanted back in. He is very good on leash however, if squirrels or rabbit crossed your path you needed to be anchored because he can pull you off your feet. Juanita & Alex have a comfortable home in a quiet neighborhood with a ton of pathways to explore. Amenities such as restaurants, grocery and liquor stores within walking distance. We had a bit of a hiccup on this stay. The day the homeowner Alex departed the central air conditioning broke down. We didn’t realize until the following day when the house just seemed to be getting hotter and hotter as the day went on. I was sitting outside and noticed that the air conditioning unit was starting but the compressor wasn’t kicking in. So being google friendly I started researching what could be wrong and tried a couple of things before notifying the homeowner I was turning the unit off to make sure no further damage would occur. Meanwhile, Oakville was in the middle of a heat wave with temperatures upward of 38 degrees Celsius. We did our best to keep cool. Early morning walks with Oreo, quiet afternoons and short evening walks. The homeowners did their best to have technicians come out to resolve the air conditioning problem. After 3 technicians tried to resolve the issue, it was on our 2nd last day there, the technician brought out a whole new compressor unit. Ah, well we’re we survived and no worse for wear. The house was cooling nicely when Juanita returned.
Spent the August long weekend in Cornwall visiting with James’ brother John and his partner Julie and then we were off to a housesit in Montreal for a week. First, James insisted he needed a smoked meat sandwich but not from Schwartz deli where we know they are fantastic. Let me just say driving in downtown Montreal was not a pleasant experience and the place we went and had said sandwich was subpar to Schwartz’s.
Our weeklong house sit was in a quiet residential area of Montreal with a 9 yr. old Terrier/Sheppard cross rescue named Whiskey. Whiskey’s family was off to Regina, Yup, you read that right, Regina! With the pandemic finally at bay we all felt the need to visit family.
Whiskey’s parents hosted a delicious dinner for us the night before our sit started. Whiskey showed us around the neighbourhood. He had his favorite walks which we took daily and one day we took and extended our walk, and he led us to Concordia University. I guess he thought we needed some additional education. Funny thing about Whiskey is when he hears sirens (ambulance, fire truck) he howls.
Then on to Ottawa where we had a terrific sit with two adorable pups; a Biro terrier named Maddigan and Biewer terrier named Mia. Oh, what a pair these two were. They, with their mum Lynne, have a lovely home with a backyard that we spent our days in, relaxing and enjoying. Lynne was a gracious host and has us for dinner the night of our arrival. We in turn prepared dinner for Lynne on the day of her return and spent the evening with Lynne at the end of the sit, talking about her trip and how here babies entertained us while she was away which made for a wonderful handoff.
Our last house-sit in August was in Richmond Hill. We were left with 4 cats that were amusing, they mostly hid during the day and started playing and running throughout the house at 10pm, that went on until the wee hours, like 4 am. The home wasn’t as advertised and didn’t even come close to the standards we had become accustomed to. Luckily, we survived.
September 6th we started a 2 week sit with two cats Napoleon & Scamper in Waterloo, Ontario. The hosts Denise & Dwayne had us arrive the day before the sit started and they prepared a wonderful meal to share with us. Denise & Dwayne’s home is lovely with a gazebo that we spent many hours in. Definitely met standards that the last home did not. This home is in a terrific location and only a couple of blocks from St. Jacobs Farmers Market which we frequented on market days (Thursdays and Saturdays). We even found a Portuguese bakery in the market with delicious pastel da nata. They were surprised when we tried our Portuguese on them.
September 21st we started our trek back to Alberta with a week long stop over in Winnipeg to visit family and friends.
Back in Alberta for the month of October we had two sits booked prior to our departure for England. The first being a sit in Calgary for a young couple heading off to New York. A modest home within walking distance of downtown. Mike & Chloe left us to care for their two rescue dogs named Reynaldo and Bodhi and their sibling cat named Kiska. Such loving animals these were. You can tell they’re happy with their owners.
And our last Canadian sit for 2022 was in Edmonton for a very affectionate and vocal cat named Chronos. We have never met or sat a cat this social. Chronos was more like a dog, following us around and on our laps at any given opportunity. Very loving his dad Rodrigo has obviously spent a lot of time with him.
October 26th off to England to start our winter sits, stay tuned.