I think it’s safe to say that winter is finally coming to a close. If you are lucky enough to have your own yard, as we do, you are probably noticing the snow melting and all of the poos that you haven’t picked up for the past three months leaving you with pangs of guilt to get out there and clean them up. Our yard is a mine field as you can’t tell the pine cones from the poos!

One thing you should check on as the snow melts is any damage to your fencing or hedges that you rely on to keep your four legged family members in the yard. This morning, I got quite the shock when Paddington disappeared out of the yard at our 5am pee time. Seems that a bunny has chewed a few holes in our plastic fencing we used to prevent the dogs from escaping through the hedges. I found Paddington about 15 minutes later a few streets over, but it was a very stressful 15 minutes, especially considering it was dark out still.

So be sure to check over your yard to be certain that it is safe and secure for your family. Paddy was VERY lucky to not have stepped out in front of a car and although her recall has improved tenfold, she still left the yard and ran off in the first place. Dogs are curious, especially those who love to patrol the yard for squirrels and bunny rabbits – the dogs take this “job” very seriously on our household.

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(Ottawa Dog of the Week for June 30/08)

“Samuel is a seven year old Treeing Walker Coonhound.

One day, near the end of the Christmas break in 2002 we decided to go into the Ottawa Humane Society to look at the dogs. We had done this a couple of times before, but no dogs were appropriate or grabbed our interest. This one day it would be different. Not one, but two dogs interested us.

After meeting them both and talking to staff, we decided to take home Sammy. How prepared were we? We had nothing. No food bowls, no food, not even a towel to cover the seats in our car. Did I mention it was winter in Ottawa and the ground was muddy? Anyway, when we got home, and released the hound (that never gets old to me) He went nuts! He ran all over the house sniffing out his new environment. We were thinking to ourselves, what did we get ourselves into. However, it would turn out he would be an absolutely dream dog! Except for the separation anxiety that we would learn about later, but that is another story.

Samuel had a tough start. We understand he had several guardians prior to us, who had to give him up for varied reasons. He did have a propensity to let his wanderlust get the better of him. We would be embarrassed when Samuel would play “houndini” and escape from us the first week we had him. Embarrassed, we then had to pick him up from the same shelter where we adopted him from the week before. Ironically, Samuel has separation anxiety, but will happily run away chasing smells any opportunity he gets. That’s just one of his quirky ways…we wouldn’t change a hair on his head, for the amount of joy and laughter he’s brought into our lives.” – Samuel’s dad, Darren

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