Countdown

If everything goes according to what we have for a plan, then Ursa should be joining us in less than a month now. Yeah!!! A lot of our activities this weekend were geared toward preparing for this.

Stuart and I spent most of Saturday afternoon raking the front and back yard. This netted us 7 or 8 bags of some grass, a whole lot of leaves and a completely unbelievable number of pine cones. I also picked out several contributions to the bottle depot and chucked a wide assortment of plastic toys back into the neighbour's yard. I might not have been so motivated to do a thorough job if I hadn't had visions of Ursa choking on toys or discovering some half-rotted bird in a leaf pile. Plus, it does get rid of the damp, covered areas that the mold loves to grow in. So today, I'm sore but feeling virtuous!

On Sunday, we went to the Pet Expo down at a building called "The Big Four" on the Stampede grounds. We got to talk to some of the obedience schools we've investigated online, learn about someone offering pet first aid courses, bio-degradable waste bags, scooters for the dog to pull and all sorts of interesting things. We have to keep reminding ourselves that it's going to be at least a year until she's big enough for a bunch of this stuff!

There have been emails flying back and forth between us and the breeder, trying to sort out the best way to send her the money. I'm learning that international banking is a lot like regular banking - just plain stupid. But in one of the emails, she mentioned that she thinks she knows which puppy she'd sending us - but she didn't say which one!!! Aaagh!