Life and Lou

I often start my blogs off with a comment about how crazy life has been and an explanation about why I have been too busy too blog. This blog is no different. Since leaving the radio game and moving back home to the Annapolis Valley things have been different, busy and very adult. I know that is a weird way to explain it but we have a new responsibility that is making us feel extremely accountable for my time, a puppy. I have discussed getting a puppy in previous blogs, when the puppies were born before we actually took custody of our little guy.

Now our lives are all about Lou.

Seriously. Lou is ruling all right now at 5 Lodge. Let me explain…

Lou looking pretty annoyed after his first bath.

Growing up my family always had a dog, always. Living on a big farm it was never a problem, it was natural to have a puppy that overtime transitioned into a dog that could be left alone and find things to do all day.

The last time I blogged about the puppies we had not determined which one we would pick. I am happy to announce we have a 9-week-old addition to the family who is relatively lazy male that is about 99% cocoa chocolate lab in the sun. He is pretty much black but it has been debated off and on since we brought him home, I think he is just a very dark brown. To celebrate his 9-week birthday I bathed him for the first time and he is not very happy about it. He is growing so fast, I wish we could freeze him in time for a little while.

Life has changed in the week and a half since we brought Lou home. We have scheduled every last minute outside of our house so that Lou will not be alone, since he came home he has only been left home alone for about an hour total. He was not a fan. We have had to settle in at night a lot earlier, Lou wakes up rather early for us and sleep levels have been rather low. Being completely honest, Lou sleeps on the bed. I said it would never happen, but he really does not like to be alone on his mat or in his crate in the dark.

Lou hates the car. Soon he will be too big to hold, to carry or to even sit on my lap. If is mother is a good indicator of his future behavior than it won’t matter how big he gets, he will still try to be a lap dog.

Lou has definitely been a learning experience and it is really about time that I develop a backbone. Between the three of us we have all given in to Lou a lot. He has been incredibly easy to teach to do his business outside, now we have to teach him how to be alone. I think it is going to be much tougher. Working at the restaurant I have been home all day with him and given up my gym time and the boys have been staying at home with in the evenings while I have been at work.

This brings me to another big piece of news, proving everything in life really does happen all at once. I have accepted a 9-5 job in an industry I never thought I would work in, banking. I will be taking on a marketing role with a bank in the Annapolis Valley (I will give more details after I actually get rolling with the job on Monday) starting Monday. As I was offered this unique opportunity to develop my marketing skills I was also offered another opportunity in the industry I am actually trained in, radio. I do not want to give out too many specifics because that role has not been advertised yet, but turning it down was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make.

Before moving to the Kootenays the exact same thing happened to me, I was offered a Promotions Director gig at a Calgary station and the Midday Host/Promotions Coordinator position (that I accepted) for Vista Radio Kootenays. I maintain that I made the right call there, moving to BC and taking on the roles that I filled at the station was a big challenge for me; I hope I will learn as much with this new position I am taking on here in the Annapolis Valley.

I am very sad about my continued temporary hiatus from the radio world, but I think this is the best decision for the time being.

Now to wean Lou off of all the daytime attention he has been receiving. Right now he is pretty annoyed with me for bathing him so he has cut me off, lets see how long it lasts!

One last thing, did I mention how fast he is growing?

Sometimes I write my blogs to get something off my chest or to practice writing creatively or objectively if I have been silent for a little while. This blog is simply a reminder to future Kate about this weird phase of life, when everything seemed to be inconveniently coming together after a shit storm of craziness. Sorry for the language there, but I could not think of a better way to describe the last few months.

This is a reminder that at a time when everything was swirling and twirling around in life (the way it does for 25 year olds) there was a 9 week old little puppy around who wanted nothing more than to cuddle up all day and sleep on your feet to keep you in one place for a little while. Someday Lou will not want to slow me down, unfortunately I fear that the day is coming soon that will have me struggling to keep up with him. I saw hints of this today as I fought to keep him in the bathtub. This is a reminder of his needy/toddler days when it was a challenge for Lou to stay awake to play sometimes because his little puppy eyes needed to nap.

Lou has his very own #Olaf! He loves him so much he ripped his head off. #worthmeltingfor #puppylove #puppy #dog #dogsofinstagram #disney #labrador

A video posted by Kate Bruce (@kategbruce) on Dec 12, 2014 at 7:59am PST

Pick A Puppy!

Television channels that were originally dedicated to promoting and playing music have been the source of endless jokes here in Canada because of their lacklustre attempts to meet their mission statement over the past few years. I have been a champion of knocking MuchMusic, CMT and the like for allowing YouTube to takeover the music video scene. It all started so innocent with spinoff shows that were relevant to music and then these channels just gave up and started airing shows that have no business on airwaves that should be representing a genre of music.

I could rant about this all day, but this blog is a little bit of an apology to the CMT network. On top of being a little critical of our Canadian music television channels for checking out of the music game for a majority of the day, I had been especially hard on the CMT network for their television show “Pick A Puppy”. I still think it is crazy that there is an entire television show dedicated to families picking out their dream puppy, but after a couple of weeks with free reign to pick my own puppy I have come to the conclusion it is much more difficult than I originally thought.

My afternoons have been spent visiting my Grandmother’s ten new additions to the family and I have been having an impossible time deciding on the puppy I want to bring home forever. We have it narrowed down to three but time is ticking down. People have begun visiting and claiming their own new little furry friends and I feel a little hopeless. Boy? Girl? Who knows! It is between two big boys and the tiniest little girl. One of the boys is a little bear who can fall asleep anywhere. The other boy we have named Ruxin, he is slightly whiny and has a white tuft on his stomach. The smallest girl is adorable. She does her own thing and is never with the other puppies (they kind of pick on here). My grandmother babied her to ensure she received enough food during the first few weeks; she is still small but she is incredibly feisty. I call her Gadget and I think she might be my favourite.

I have no idea how this is going to turn out. Will we end up with a big, lazy boy or a small energetic girl? Will they all end up massive black labs in the end? One more time, who knows?

We will see in the next couple of weeks! I am so excited to bring our little lad/lass home and baby the crap out of them!

My indecisiveness can be summed up in less than 500 words and I have been spending hours each week with these puppies. I maintain that there is no reason to have an entire television show devoted to the puppy picking process.

A photo posted by Kate Bruce (@kategbruce) on Nov 11, 2014 at 8:27am PST

Puppies!

Well it has been an exciting few weeks! I finally visited Disney World last week (more to come on that later), I’ve been working quite a bit and super nesting in the new house!

On top of all the travel and craziness almost a month ago something very exciting happened, my grandmother’s Golden Labrador had puppies! 10 beautiful puppies are my obsession right now; I think I may even get one! There are six female and four male. It surprised all of us that all ten are pretty much solid black! The litter of Yellow Lab crossed with Chocolate Lab is black!

The puppies are now beginning to be fun. Their eyes are open and they are moving around. Some are a lot chubbier than the others so they kind of look like little seals flopping around and the leaner ones are walking. Soon they will be playing and exhibiting their personalities, I can’t wait!

This is my Grandmothers dog’s second litter of puppies. The first litter we crossed the Yellow Lab with a Standard Poodle for Labradoodles, it was much smaller with six puppies. Four of the Labradoodles were yellow and the other two were black. They were adorable!

I’ll update the blog with puppy cuteness, as they get even cuter! If you know anyone in Nova Scotia looking for an adorable Black Lab puppy feel free to email me!