While I was away someone stole my neighbours’ white pomeranian.

According to Drew, the dog had been missing since the weekend. Our neighbours had thought that someone (they or the mail carrier) had inadvertently left the gate open. They figured she’d gotten out of the fenced yard and was off wandering. E and V have a large fence in the backyard and a small 2 foot one in the front. Fluffy was in the front yard at the time. Normally she’s not left outside on her own but V has been quite ill and didn’t stay outside with her that day. So, when V opened the door a few minutes later to let her back into the house, she discovered the pooch was missing. That started an immediate panic. E hadn’t returned from work. Friends and neighbours were rounded up to help V search for the dog. Calls were placed to the city pound and SPCA. Fluffy has both a collar and a tattoo so if she was found and turned in to the city, they’d be able to find her.

People searched for days with no results. The city’s Web site listing lost and found pets was checked multiple times a day. No mugshot of Fluffy appeared on the site.

V was in a panic. She’s had Fluffy for years. Since her diagnosis last year Fluff has been her constant companion while E is at work.

Today as E was driving home from work he saw a couple walking a dog that looked suspiciously like Fluffy. He pulled over and called the dog. Fluff rushed over to him immediately. Then he was told a story. Apparently the couple walking Fluff had been approached by a man attempting to sell the dog just off the main road running through our area. They don’t know how many people he approached before he happened upon them. They were suspicious and refused to pay for Fluffy. Eventually, he gave Fluffy to them. They suspected she might have been stolen directly from the yard (pulled over the fence)and handed the dog back to E. He brought her home to V.

Of course, I’m still wondering why they never called the number on Fluffy’s collar once they had her. Revise that. I’m a bit hazy on whether or not she still had her collar. Still, if they really were suspicious of the dogs origins, you’d think they’d have reported her to the city pound. Her tattoo could have been easily traced and her owners found.

We made it. We’re home. The truck is muddy and gross from driving through slush and storms. There will be time enough to wash it tomorrow.

There was an incident at the puppy sitters (Hypnos was bad! Sorry Wendy) so we didn’t take the time to stop in town and pick up gifts and sweaters this morning before heading home. A thank you dinner will have to suffice this time ’round. I’m thinking wings and beer at Brewsters just might begin to make up for it. If not, Wendy and Drew can compare scars…

Today is election day in Alberta. Drew and I voted at an advanced poll last week. We weren’t sure if we’d make it home in time to cast a vote today but didn’t want to miss out on the excitement of scribbling an X on a thick piece of paper. Oddly enough, I was registered to vote in our riding but Drew wasn’t. He had to be sworn in at the advanced poll in order to vote. Since both of our names are on the city taxes, mortgage and utilities bills, we’re not sure why he was missed from the voting roster.

Hiding out in the wilderness sometimes means you miss important news. Arriving home today I caught mention in the news that Jeff Healey has passed away. I remember seeing Jeff play live well over a decade ago and being in complete awe of his talent and joy for music. His skills will be missed.

Checking in with my class schedule has reminded me that – once again – I have but a few days to work on my latest History paper. Why is it that weeks just seem to fly by in that class? At least it’s not due until Tuesday of next week so I may actually get it finished early this time… At least I have another 2-3 weeks to get the next Psych paper in. For once they’re not both due on the same day!

This week we’ve been playing host to our 17 year old “nephew” from Winnipeg. In a short span of time I’ve quickly learned that teenage boys spend as much (if not more) time on the phone as girls, the “me first” attitude drives me bonkers, and I’d never survive prolonged exposure to teens.

Of course, my views are somewhat coloured by the fact that I’m ensconced in my office working on my contract development work and only tend to see the boy when he comes to whine or complain about something.

Today he’s supposed to be helping the guys with general grunt work as they re-roof our house but every time I go outside to see if anyone needs anything he’s sitting down looking miserable. He certainly didn’t enjoy being asked by Drew to pick up the nails and old shingle spill-over that’s appeared in the backyard after lunch. Granted, it could be worse (‘cept, he doesn’t seem to see it that way). He could have been ripping shingles off the roof, lugging bundles of shingles up the ladder, installing the shingles, or hauling away the old shingles into the bin in the alley…

On Friday, we temporarily added 8 new feet to our household. We’re babysitting Snuggles and Rascal (don’t let the names fool you) while our friends are on vacation. Luckily for us, these two pooches are a bit smaller than mine, so if a war breaks out, they’ll probably end up doing about equal damage to each other. There’s no real unfair advantage.

Last night we found ourselves nearly shoved out of bed when 3 dogs hopped in. We’ve gotten used to Hypnos sleeping at our feet over the years, but Snuggles and Rascal seem to be more of a “middle to top” of the bed group of dogs. Hypnos wasn’t the least impressed and made friends with a green-eyed monster. We’re lucky that Hypnos managed to control his jealousy until we woke up!

Fenris, of course, isn’t the slightest bit interested in sleeping on a human bed when she’s got a perfectly good dog bed on the floor and wasn’t the least bit interested in the drama playing out above her.

As for my work contract, I’ve gotten sign-off on my template so the contract is 25% complete. *yippee*

I suffered a slight set-back on Friday when I was testing the content in a variety of browsers and discovered that IE 6 was completely messing up the formatting from my CSS. A bazillion hours of tweaking and testing later I’ve got it all fixed and have been slaving away today trying to get back on track. The draft is due to the review committee on Monday and I think I’m in good shape. I had 3 modules to complete between Friday and Sunday and have managed to finish up 1.5 of them. The day is still young and I still have all day tomorrow to work on it. I’m feeling pretty confident that it will all come together in time.

Technorati Tags: dogs, babysitting, teenage, boys, roofing, work

Of our two dogs, one (Hypnos) loves the rain but despises all other forms of water. The other (Fenris) can’t stand the rain, but is nuts about the hose. She dives, jumps, snaps at the water, and can spend hours playing in the spray.

Seeing as our lawn has been taken over with weeds, we’ve been trying to overseed to kills some of them off. Seeding, of course, requires lots of water for the seeds to take. Since it hasn’t rained here in eons, we’ve purchased a sprinkler to make our lives easier. Fenris is in love…

On approach

Starting the attack

Diving in

Jumping for joy. She’s pretty spry for a 10 year old!

Hypnos checks out Fenris’ playtime from a safe distance

Hypnos finds a dry place on the deck

Technorati Tags: dogs, water, sprinkler, Fenris, Hypnos

Since I start work tomorrow, tonight I get to do all the fun things I haven’t done in ages – like prepare my lunch the night before, iron a blouse, and try to get a full night’s sleep.

It’s going to be odd working in an academic environment after so many years of working for a massive international corporation. If nothing else, I’m looking forward to the experience of knowing what my co-workers look like along with knowing their names and phone numbers.

A side bonus of the new job is I’ll have a new location to randomly release books for Bookcrossing. Perhaps if I release them at a college, I may find more of them being picked up and read in the near future.

I’m not exactly sure how the dogs will react to being alone all day once again. They’ve taken to acting out a bit when I go out for a few hours, so I’m sure it’ll be a challenge for us to get them back into a routine. Thankfully the hubby will be home on Sunday and will be able to help.

Technorati Tags: books, work, bookcrossing