Our third cat, little Bailey, has come to the end of the line. He was struggling to eat and was losing weight fast so we thought the best thing we could do for him was put him out of his misery.
So little.
It’s really hard to describe Bailey, a rather reclusive cat. He came to us about five years ago, hanging out on our deck until we let him in. We had seen him before in the front and back of our house, calling him “Brown Tabby.” He was a big guy back then. He was shy then, too, disappearing out of sight quickly. That’s why it was such a surprise when he parked himself on the deck in plain view.
Bailey fit in with our two other cats fine by ignoring them for the most part. He kept to himself, spending the first two years here under the buffet in the dining room. Gradually he branched out to the dining room table itself and even the loft. But his favourite place was our bed where he would come for snuggles almost every night. This was entirely out of character for him because he would actually back away from us if we approached him. But the bed was safe, for some reason. He loved his chin rubs and he loved to rub his sore mouth up against my hand. This held true for the cottage as well, where he would leave his abode – the corner of the cupboard – only to hop on the bed.
Bailey was quiet and did no harm. Once Richard arrived a year and a half ago, he had to defend himself against the youngster’s relentless chasing. I’m sure that heightened his stress levels. Yet they would sleep close to each other in the loft, sometimes even on opposite sides of the bench, separated by a pillow.
I will miss Bailey and will keep him in my memories forever as my special cat.
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Here he is looking longingly outside at the cottage. He knows how good he has it – he doesn’t really want to leave. Just look.
East York Canada Day parade took place on a very hot July 1.
Ward 29 Bikes had a small “float” of riders, with the star of the show being Felicity in her fabulously decorated balloon bike.
Yes, she is actually in there somewhere.
Captain Canada emerges!
A lot of people took pictures of Felicity!
The streets of East York (at least those on the parade route) were lined with red and white (mostly white, to be honest) viewers.
That was my first ride, albeit at a snail’s pace. I am now practicing for my August ride around Lake Simcoe with Val.
My mom treated a group of us to this fabulous musical on Saturday!
It is very emotional. I was told I would cry but I wasn’t prepared for it JUST HAPPENING from very early on in the play.
Very Canadian. Lovely music, great story. Great band – one guy wore a Def Leppard shirt. Does he wear it to every performance, I wonder?
(Mirvish)
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I haven’t really had a chance to get my thoughts together about losing so many wonderful horses and the entire barn at Sunnybrook. I’ll have to write more about that later.
I am so grateful that there are 13 horses still remaining, among them the incredible horses that Julie and I ride: Skye, Rex and Daisy. We are both so relieved to say that Polka, Carmel, Yukon, Dante, Flight, Queenie, Huckleberry, Will, Georgia and Clyde are also alive!
Sugar is the horse that I have thought about the most; she has always been the “welcome” horse in the first stall – standing or box. My last ride on Sugar, some time in the winter, was wonderful. She was showing off her increasing and decreasing canter circles. Last Thursday I said hello and goodbye to Sugar, as I always do. She looked her usual serene self just standing there checking out the view. It can’t really have been the last time, can it?
Here’s a picture of Sugar from this past December.
Like all Sunnybrook horses, she served us well. Thank you, Sugar. We love you and we will miss you.
On the day of the crazy windstorm the Stars on Ice 2018 tour arrived in Toronto. I was lucky enough to have incredible on-ice seats to view what had to be one of the greatest moments of my life. Yes, I said that.
For a figure skating fan this was the highlight: our entire gold medal team plus Javier Fernandez and Jeffrey Buttle (well, I’m not much of an Elvis Stojko fan but he tried)! What more can a figure skating fan ask for (Kurt Browning might be my answer).
It’s hard to pick out just one highlight as there were so many thrills but tears came to my eyes during Patrick Chan’s Hallelujah and Tessa and Scott’s Roxanne. The filled ACC was SO loud for Tessa and Scott. The entire gold medal team skating to Fields of Gold was pretty sweet, too.
I have to say that after the thrill of the World Championships for Kaetlyn Osmond’s gold and Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje’s bronze it was pretty awesome to see them live. Kaitlyn and Andrew, in particular, did two amazing numbers. Kaetlyn stands out for her speed, grace and maturity – not a concept very common in women’s skating these days with all those 15 year old jumpers who don’t hear their music.
On a parting note for the 2017-2018 season I will just say this: Tessa and Scott skating to Roxanne is the greatest creation figure skating has every seen. Superlative. Happy to have been a witness to it.
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