Dogs or Cats, maybe both

Dogs or Cats, maybe both.

As a parent who’s children have had children (making me a grandpa), it is important to find an alternative to having children around your home. In my early years, families lived close to each other and we had almost daily interaction with our extended family. If we didn’t see someone for a couple of days we wondered what was wrong. It seems that today our children are dispersed across the country and those that live close (within an hours drive) they are busy with their own lives.

Our children of today are focused upon their nuclear family more than ever. They are more likely to have both spouses working outside the home leaving weekends to accomplish things that we used to do during the week. Their children are more involved with organized activities than ever before. Personally, I was involved in few organized activities early; I did get involved with Air Cadets and their Band and later on with the Militia but nothing in the early days. My father didn’t put me in hockey so I never played the game, baseball wasn’t that organized, basketball was popular in my region but I wasn’t that good at it so I couldn’t play in the organized leagues.

That brings me to today; we see some of our children once a year (if we are lucky – 3,000 miles is a restriction) or we see the local children every month or so. They are busy and we know how hard it is for them to get everything done. So where do we focus our attention?

It’s pretty basic. Get a dog or a cat or both. We have two cats (Ragdolls) and a dog (Yorkshire terrier) as the focus of our love and attention. My wife and I volunteer at a senior’s residence (her more than me) and we see interesting people who in most cases are alone.

One feisty senior said that she threw her husband out two years ago, she lost her dog 6 months ago and she misses her dog the most.

Our pets become our substitute children and they become our companions and confidents. They keep us going because they need us as much as we need them. They are an important part of our lives.

More Snow – WTF

Valentines dinner went well, the ladies were very happy and said they felt like queens. The little extra effort paid off. A friend of ours in a similar situation – wife and surrogate called to see if he could catch us off guard but we bested him only because he doesn’t cook. A good laugh was had by all.

We had more snow last night seemed like around 4 inches when shovelling/snow blowing. The total to date is 292 cm (115 inches) of snow with a potential major storm coming on Sunday. This is currently the 7th worst snowfall in history. There is a winter storm warning developing that should hit us on Sunday afternoon although the details aren’t published yet but just what we don’t need – another winter storm. It’s a good thing we had the January melt because we lost about half the volume of snow and we could actually see over the snow banks but now the snow in my driveway is higher than the car parked there. Even in the paper they are talking about how people are getting tired of the snow and it’s really bad for people with seasonal affected disorder (SAD).

I use the webcam on the notebook to take the pictures. You can see there is a car there somewhere, the sun is out so the snow is melting on the black driveway.

So I have my shadows with me. Every time I change locations my three beasties follow me. You don’t have to worry about being alone with them around.  That’s Hugo Boss, Kita Kat, and Precious.