Introducing Teddy

So as many of you know, I lost my wonderful Beckett in Dec, right before Christmas.  My heart was torn up, but you know I knew even then that a puppy would help me heal.  I desperately wanted another bi black Sheltie.

In early January, some friends contacted me about a Sheltie they needed to rehome, I told them no as I was looking for a bi black.  I had contacted two breeders both of whom were supposed to breed in Jan or early Feb but those breedings didn't take place. I then found a seven month old sable puppy in the Ottawa area that was available but then I started to think.

I still wanted a bi black puppy but did I want to go through the puppy stages twice. I mean puppies are fun but then there's the housebreaking, the chewing and all the other not so fun stuff that goes with raising a puppy.  So I thought the dog my friends had might be a good choice.

Teddy July 2017

Teddy was born on 6 Apr 2017.  He was purchased at a pet store in Quebec, which at one time was Canada's puppy mill capital. The province brought in stronger animal protection legislation in 2015 to help that but I guess selling puppies in pet stores was not part of it.  He was sold as a Shetland Sheepdog and I'm sure he is mostly Sheltie but he has no papers and the first owner (my friend's cousin) was the one who had him microchipped, that would or should have been done by the breeder.

I don't know why the cousin couldn't keep him but my friend's daughter ended up with him sometime last summer. She, however, lives in an apartment and found taking him out was a bit of a hassle so that's how my friends ended up with him. My friends were already thinking about a trip to Ottawa so when I called them to see if they were still looking to rehome Teddy, they decided to make a week of it and came to visit some other friends as well. They spent two days at my place so we could see how Teddy and Keltic got along as, of course, that was the first hurdle.  They get along just fine, no fighting over food and they walk together pretty well.

Out walking

With Keltic's new bed

At Keltic's birthday

They don't play together, maybe they never will. Teddy likes vinyl toys and doesn't seem to care much for stuffed toys. Keltic has tried to get Teddy to tug a stuffie with him but Teddy doesn't know what to make of that.

Teddy couldn't or wouldn't get on the couch when he got to my place and wouldn't do the stairs either but once I saw him get up on a snow bank I knew he was able to do it.  As you can see, he's learned to get on the couch and he goes downstairs quite easily now, he still needs some encouragement to go upstairs but he will go up on his own now.  He had a broken right hind leg when he was younger so that may be part of his reluctance to do stairs.

Teddy has one blue eye, it's got a little bit of brown in it. He always looks like he's giving you "Sheltie stink eye". 

He was supposed to be here for a couple months trial but with the craziness going on that trial will likely have to be extended. I had booked a vet appointment for him for a health check to make sure he'd be safe doing agility and I was going to take him out to the training facility we go to so that I could make sure that he would be physically able to do agility.  Of course, both my vet's office and the training facility are closed.  I have taken Teddy into my training area in the basement and he learnt to do a jump already but I wonder a bit about the teeter and the a-frame what with his stair issues. 

So we'll see how things go, I'm thinking he'll probably stay.  And a breeder I know in the Ottawa area contacted me just days ago to say that she is breeding her dog to a bi black Sheltie so who knows there might be a puppy in the future too. 

Happy Barkday

St Patrick's Day marked Keltic's eighth birthday.  It was very fortuitous that he was born on St Paddy's Day as I had already selected Keltic as a call name.  His full registered name is Triadic's Keltic Livinonthedge. "Living on the edge" is a line from the song Shamrock City by the Irish Descendants. Also his grandsire was Bach's Razor's Edge so that worked out quite nicely.

Keltic had a trial the weekend before his birthday and managed to get his fourth Masters Snooker Q which gives him his Masters Snooker Dog of Canada title.  At one time I never thought he would get a Masters title, now he has one and is only one qualifying score from his Masters Jumpers title too.

I had told him that I would take him shopping for his birthday presents but who could have predicted the craziness going on.  I bought him a new dog bed, some treats and made cookies for his birthday.  We had a quiet birthday at home with just Teddy, who is here on trial but he'll probably stay. More about Teddy later.

New bed

Shamrock cookies

The birthday boy

The pawty!

We have been staying home and just going out for walks.  So glad the dogs are with me as it would be rather lonely otherwise.  In these trying times: Stay safe! Be Kind!

Wordless Wednesday

The New Addition

 No I didn't get another puppy... but I would like to; I had an addition built on the house. For years now, I've been thinking about putting a sun room on the back of the house. I've had quotes done for kit installations where the panels are prefabricated off-site and installed at your location.  I had thought that this would be less expensive; boy was I surprised at the cost. At the time, I didn't have enough saved to even do the kit installation so I waited a couple years and very nearly signed a contract but I made it conditional on determining if the city would let us build on the existing deck. They wouldn't so I backed out, but I kept on thinking about having a nice sun room. Last spring when my mortgage came due and I still had that sun room on my mind, I borrowed the money since interest rates were very low to do the sun room.  I began the search for a contractor, I had wanted it built last fall but didn't sign a contract in time to have it done so it was scheduled for this spring.

Technoposts and beams

The contractor parked his trailer in my driveway on 8 June for what was to be a five to 8 week job depending on delays. The first delay was that it rained most of the first week and my contractor and his partner got stomach flu so nothing happened in week one. In week 2, the old deck was removed and  my contractor and the technopost installer decided on a different layout for the foundation posts. This meant we needed new engineering drawings and the city needed to approve the revised drawings. The new drawings took nearly a week and the city took 12 working days to approve the drawings. The city tries to get revisions done in five days but technically they have 15 days. But while we waited for the drawings and approval, nothing could be done but the beams and joists, the floor could not be closed in.

Floor Joists

Once we had the approval work on the framing moved along quickly. It was neat to see what had been done each time I came home. When I left to go to Calgary for my niece's wedding and some vacation time with my sister, the tile floor was being installed. I had hoped that the sun room would be nearly complete when I got back.  Nothing much else was done when I got home, it was somewhat disappointing but the windows hadn't yet arrived.

Framing

Roof beam and rafters

Roofing and exterior OSB

Insulation and skylights

Tongue in groove pine ceiling

Tile floor

I was home for a few days before going camping, the day before I  left the window installers arrived. Funny thing, the team leader was a sheltie owner that I knew from agility. They started the job and completed it while I was away camping. The siding company was supposed to be in early the next week. I got home from camping on Sunday evening, no one showed up on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. I e-mailed my contractor who told me that my job was the next one but they wouldn't be able to get to it until the next week, but on Friday they showed up at 7:45 am while I was still in bed.

Windows and exterior siding

Interior siding

Siding all installed

With the siding done all that had to be completed before I could use the room was the electrical. The electricians were confirmed but the morning they were to arrive no one showed up until 11 am and then when he did, he couldn't compete the job as he didn't have the necessary tools and screws. He asked if they could come back the next day and told me that they would be there at 7:45 am. Again no one showed up until nearly 11 am; I had called my contractor at 9 am to see if something had happened. It was different electrician who showed up and I guess there was some miscommunication about what time he was to do my job. He finished the job which was a good thing as I had already asked my sister and brother-in-law if they could help me move the patio furniture in that evening.

Section sofa set in the garage

The construction had taken so long that I had purchased a new sectional set when all the stores started to have their summer clearance sales. Thinking the sun room would be close to done when I got back from Calgary, I had the set delivered and had stored it in the garage.

With help from my family, we got the sun room set up on Thursday, 3 Sep, almost two months exactly from the time construction started. There still are some small jobs to do, eaves-troughs and some flashing on the roof line and the final inspections still need to be done as well.  I didn't get to use the sun room on Friday or Saturday as we were heading off to an agility trial but I did get to use it yesterday and if it's not too hot I'll use it today. Hopefully we'll have a nice fall and I'll get a lot of use of it during that time before the weather turns really cold as I won't be able to use it to sit out in then either.

Ceiling Fan

New sectional

Finally relaxing in the sun room

Evening star

So while the project took longer than expected and I didn't get to use it much while I was on vacation (I go back to work tomorrow), I'm very happy with the end result. I'm looking forward to using it next spring and also happy that this winter I won't need to shovel that deck. I use the snow blower on the lower deck so that's not too hard to do.

This was my first really big project and I guess as construction projects go, it went rather well. My only real regret is that I took so long to actually make the decision to build the sun room as I'm sure I'm going to enjoy it immensely, stay-cations are looking better and better, maybe a hot tub will get installed next year.