Dog - Abandoned by owner

We didn't expect on having Mya stay with us for longer than a few days. But she ended up staying with us for almost 3 weeks.  The house was under renovation so an extended dog visitation was allowed.  The only piece of home she had was her blanket.  It made sense to have her stay with us.  And Kieran was pretty happy about that.

I didn't know how she'd react to living at our home for the next 3 weeks.  We weren't sure how Kieran's allergies would be while she was here.  I didn't realize that this dog doesn't climb stairs.  She would stand at the bottom and bark for one of us to come get her.  Afterwards I just kept her on the main floor.  And she was ok with that.

The first night was tiring and she would follow one us around.
She would sometimes crawl under the bed.  Not sure what she was doing but as long as she wasn't peeing or pooping.  I didn't care.

The first few days she sat by the door.  After a while I guess she was getting acclimated to her new temp home, and I saw her lying on the sofa.  So I had to barricade the sofas with boxes.  But then i just closed the door.

There was one night she followed Kieran upstairs and walking around in Kieran's room.  Crawled under the bed.  So we went to sleep.
Then middle of the night i realized she was up and wandering around the room.  And then I don't know how long she was sitting in the corner just looking back at the bed like in the photo there.  It kinda spooked me.  Like she was staring at some ghost or something. I guess Kieran's air filtration system was keeping her up.  And she kept me up.

Then she started digging by the door. So I got up and took her downstairs.

Most days were about getting up early and taking her out for a quick pee or poo.  I learned that 1 poo wasn't how she worked.  She would poo in another place.  But at least her poo was small.

One time we brought her with us to school.  Keiran's request.
That was it.  One time.
But most days I took her out after I dropped Kieran off at school for a longer walk.  Then after school the kids would play with her
and again after dinner before we stayed in for the rest of the evening.


On weekends she went on much longer walks.  And playing with the kids.
She didn't slide down this one.  But Kieran tried, but he couldn't win the tug of war battle that was going on.

The curly slide in the other park was 2x as high and long and she went down that one, with nails clawing into the slide but Kieran got her to go, unwillingly and probably unknowingly.  That's what you get for chasing that kid.

 

During the day, I'd open the front door and let her sit and watch passerbys or birds or squirrels, whatever.  I heard the yapping.  I knew either the mailman came by, or some neighbour walked by, or cat, dog, raccoon.

She was a timid dog yapping at everyone and other dogs. But the only dog she was afraid of was Buddy the male Schnauser on the street.



Victoria Day weekend was spent hiding in a corner.  Sometimes behind the fridge.
She cowered in the hallway, so I with the IKEA cardboard pieces I covered her up.  And she was able to turn around in that box without it falling.

We got her some treats that the kids could give her.  And the neighbours also had treats.  She probably gained some weight.




It was kinda nice having a pet around for a bit.  She was pretty good, too bad she didn't follow commands like "attack".  She's pretty much like every other dog my sister has ever had.  Just lies around a lot. Not very good at catching stuff. Ate anything I threw at her head. Cucumber, apple, cheese, whatever. If I wasn't so pre-occupied with the kitchen reno I would have enjoyed it more.  Just glad the weather was good. The really great thing was that she got Kieran outside for extended periods of time.

She is back with my sister now, and didn't recognize that she was back home. ha. Too funny.

Team Swansea 2014 Splash Champs

The 2013-14 Swansea Stingrays swim team finished atop the Splash rankings.
I didn't note down the final points for the competing teams, but Swansea had 4800 pts for the season. Ahead of Norseman by a few hundred points.

Not sure why everyone is looking at Josh's toes.  Maybe they need trimming? or polish? Or fungus? Ewww.





Cheering for your team isn't as much fun as goofing around.

Also, bombing a perfectly good photo.

When you have to actually pose.  Well that's just too much effort.

But it was back to business when your heat is ready to go.









Kieran

• Ind Fly
• Ind Back
• Ind Breast

Xander

• Ind Breast

Rachel

• Ind Fly
• Ind Back
• Ind Breast

Team Relay - IM





Team Relay - Free
this one Kieran made for an exciting race.  I guess he didn't want to make it so ho hum. Watch and you'll see what he does not once, but twice!

Swansea finished Second in the Spring Finals swim meet, but overall for the year they finished nearly 400 pts ahead of the second place Norseman CRC team.

Mother's Day demos

There were two demo's.
Friday was the Mother's Day concert by Kieran's class.  No Father's allowed.  Or else a young person will ask why you are there.  It HAS happened.
Kieran wanted to break out his tuxedo from the closet and wear it for this special concert that his class has been preparing and practicing for.

There were many kids playing instruments, solo and duets and groups.






Readers.
(For a small donation he'll even read tea leaves)






Dance troupes.


Hip hop.

Flip flop.
And More.

For mother's Only. No Father's allowed.

I've only ever seen this concert from video and photos.  I think they have a 3rd year bouncer.

I'm not sure if any other class does this, but it is really a great thing and the kids are all so involved and excited about performing.





It's great for the mothers and gives the kids a platform to display their skills and shine.  How cool is that?
Don't know where that hat came from.






Mother's Day weekend was also about demolition.  Kieran always asks about smashing something.  He missed out on the bathroom because of the Caravan at school, but the kitchen tiles have been waiting for a hammer to send them to the landfill for a decade.  Can't believe we have waited this long to gut this kitchen.  But we didn't know what was possible until we started down this path that started with the hall closet. Bit by bit, room by room we've been learning and figuring out how to do this.  We are close to the end of a journey that began with a condensation problem in our closets.

We contacted those foam insulation companies that inject foam into walls.  Finding out the cost and seeing examples of how it turns out and deciding that ripping out the walls and insulating was how we were going to go after starting with the closet.

Then the Eco Program got us into 3rd gear with all those rebate incentives.  With auditors telling us that no one goes through this type of effort.  And I know why.  But it's really not that hard.  Rooms were taking me 2 weeks from start to finish.
The laundry room was a the first big project.  But I learned a lot.  Plumbing, electrical, framing.

Which I put to use in the basement rec room.  Removing that old kitchen and all the plumbing.
I would use those skills again in the bathroom, that's almost done.
And now the kitchen.  Which I think is so far been pretty good.  The wall is now gone, ductwork and plumbing and bulkheads had to be broken and redone.  Before I could even start working on the kitchen.

This is our kitchen.  It was in our backyard.

Today our old kitchen is heading for the dump.
The fun part can begin.  Which is up to our creativity and imagination.


Well after I rip up the floor in the kitchen.
And get rid of all those boxes that I didn't end up needing.