Thor Playing

Introducing Thor

We got a puppy yesterday.  He's a boxer-bullmastiff cross and he is adorable!  He's currently 9 and a half weeks and is just about 20 pounds.


Untitled from Penella Zollner on Vimeo.


The breeder was the owner of both the parent dogs.  The Dad is beautiful fawn boxer and the Mom is a brindle bullmastiff.  Both are average size for their respective breeds and we think Thor will probably top out at about 100 pounds.  Since he will be a big guy, we're enrolling in "puppy school" as soon as possible!

We had a couple of 'piddles and piles' on the floor last night and a lot of barking/whining/crying/howling/groaning/gnashing of teeth all night for his first night away from home; poor Sweetie was very tired this morning when he got up for work (as you can tell in the video, Thor's bark is pretty high pitched and sharp and he's surprisingly persistent!  Even I have a hard time sleeping through that). But that will only last a few days until he gets accustomed to his new crate (insha'allah!) and today we have had several successful trips outside.

He is definitely a 'people' dog which the breeder told us and that's part of the reason we chose him.  He follows me around the house and when I work in my office, he snuggles as close to my feet as he can and goes to sleep.  He wants to play with Jaz in the worst way but Jaz hasn't bought in to the whole 'puppy' thing yet.  She has made it abundantly clear who's the boss around here and fortunately Thor seems to respect that.  Give her a few days, she'll come 'round.

Creature Spotting: Moose in our yard

OK, I promise I will not blog about the moose anymore after this.  But they are pretty cool to watch when I'm safely tucked away in my living room!  Lately we have been seeing the same mama moose and her baby in the pasture behind our trailer.  They have become frequent visitors in our yard, as was the case the past 2 mornings.  Yesterday, they headed for the cover of the forest before it was light enough to get any video but this morning they were a little more sociable.  We watched them for more than 20 minutes before they moved on ... and even then they were in no big hurry to get back to the bush.


Moose in the Yard from Penella Zollner on Vimeo.


P.S.  The quality of the video is poor because of this stoopid video editing software.  It really sucks.  Don't buy Panasonic!

My Birthday in Montreal

For my birthday, Sweetie took me to Montreal.  I have not been there before and I found it to be a very lovely city, definitely a place I would return.  And surprisingly, and in spite of the myriad of taxes (GST, PST, HST, etc), it was a relatively inexpensive weekend.