A Mother's Pride (aka Princess was so good this week-end!)

I will upload pictures tomorrow to show you our Pool Party this past Canada Day week-end. (Canada Day is July 1st, so it usually falls on the same week-end as Independence Day for those of you south of the border.)

We had about 40 people over, including children ranging from 7 months to 13. There were two darling 7-month-olds (Charlotte and Kiara), two toddler (14-month-old Charlie and seventeen-month-old Liam), six-year-old former ring bearer (for us) Kylan, plus three 11-13 year old names Tyler, Jordan and Spencer. There were new men, big scary men, children running and screaming. And Princess was good. Kylan's nervous around dogs, but within a couple minutes, they were cuddling. Princess quickly learned that if she sits under the toddlers, food will come her way! She sat beside people to be petted, greeted new guests as they arrived with a tail wag (no jumping and no barking) and was generally the best behaved dog ever. She growled once to tell someone she didn't want to be picked up (but it was a very quiet 'rrr' to indicate dislike, rather than a full-out growl).

She was so good. We were so proud of her! We were watching her very closely for the first two hours, but after that we relaxed after all the guests had arrived and we saw how Princess was behaving. We prepared everyone who was coming to be prepared for her behaviours, and our plan was to crate/pen her once she became excited or over-stimulated. We didn't need to do anything, though! People who hadn't met her before were confused that we had prepared them for a scared rescue dog who was prone to fear-based behaviours; and they arrived to meet the friendliest, most docile dog many of them said they'd ever met.

She was so good. You should see how proud Wade and I were of our cute little dog that night! :)

Pictures to come soon ... I was going to uplaod them from my camera at work (shh!) where I have faster internet and could use my work laptop, but I forgot the camera cord. I'll try again tomorrow!

The Long Week-End (that would be LAST week-end for Canadians!)

This past week-end was our long week-end (Victoria Day, which almost everyone calls "May 2-4"). Following a nearly decade-old tradition, I went out Wolfe Island. It used to be quite the party - sometimes we'd be there from Friday to Monday. This year, we went out for Saturdy evening. I gardened and planted things all-day Sunday. ("May 2-4" is the week-end many Canadians plant their gardens. Any earlier, and there's still a possibility of frost!) We also opened our pool. I meant to put more pictures, but because of uploading problems, there are just three.

Some of our irises, plants that are perennials already along the side of our house when we moved in:


I planted fox glove (a perennial we had at our old house) alongside geraniums. Fox glove is highly poisonous (and in fact is the therapeutic basis of the heart drug digoxin). It also attracts hummingbirds, but we've only noticed butterflies and bumblebees. Geranium is an annual that supposedly repel mosquitos and flies. I don't know if I believe it, but it can't hurt.


We also planted marigolds (possibly a natural mosquito repellant), a silver leaf thing (the name eludes me, but it's a butterfly attractant), more irises, peonies (far from the house as a natural ant attractant), lilacs, and hydrangeas. I'll post pictures of each of them later.

I'll also post pool opening pictures later. While we planted and opened the pool, here is what Princess did:


It was hot (33-34C / 91-93F) so we tried to keep Princess in the shade, and we kept her water bowl near her. For a few minutes, she ocassionally sat in the sun, but every time she quickly moved back to the shade.

(Okay, no more updates for me. If you have google reader, I think you just had 3 or 4 very similar posts. Sorry to bother you!)

Animal Safety for the pool

Remember I talked about animal pool safety here? Well, Wade's picking up our Scamper Ramp tonight. We're opening our pool in exactly one week, so I felt we needed this animal safety item.

I keep calling this the "Critter Crawler". I'm not sure why. I think I must like the name Scamper Ramp better.

Pool Safety

Before we open our pool, I am semi-obsessing over making our pool safe for children and animals. There's the obvious pool safety implements, of course: it is completely fenced with a 5' high fence; the gates entering the pool are self-closing and self-latching; the door to the pool is locked whether or not we're home (unless we're actually on the deck).

But there are less obvious problems that many people don't think of.

Case #1: our door opens onto the back deck to the pool. That's a problem because it's an easy access point for children to the pool. We have two choices: put up removable but secure fencing to block access to the pool (like a big child gate) or put a second (elevated) lock on the door to prevent little ones from opening the door. Here's the fencing: If these fences are truly secure and easy to install/remove, I think the fence option seems convenient. You just put it up when the pool's not in use and we're not around. However, if not, then we'll install a second lock on the door that's far too high for any child to reach. Probably cheaper, of course, but I'm afraid that it's easier to forget.

Case #2: animals can still get in the pool. Although dogs can swim naturally, I read that if they fall in at night, they can panic. Also, frogs and other critters can get confused in pools and drown trying to find their way out. Of course, where there's a need (or someone manufactures a need!), there's someone to sell me a solution! Well, I uncovered this solution, which I think looks neat. There are several brands that make stairs or ramps for animals, including the Scamper Ramp (shown here):
No idea if these work, but I like that it'll save pets and wildlife who may become confused in a pool.

Currently, we have a fancy-schmancy pool cover that you can walk on! It's a winter cover that can withstand up to 200 lbs of weight. It's not made for adults to walk on it, but rather to support the weight of children or animals who might escaped supervision (children) or get over the fence (animals) to venture around/on the pool. It's stretched taut so that no one can get under the cover, too. I really like this cover, but it's a winter cover. Once we open the pool, it's far too difficult to put on-and-off the pool frequently.

I considered a pool alarm (it goes off if anything penetrates the surface, creating waves). However, the literature indicates that it's prone to false alarms (such as on a windy day) so most users end up disabling the alarm. I think we'll save the money and not put in a pool alarm. I will investigate more permanent safety method that will not be disabled.

So, do you have any opinion on what we should do to ensure our pool is incredibly safe? Have you seen or experienced the animal pool ramps? Have you used the secure fences that are easily removed around pools? Any thoughts on pool safety in general that will help me out to make our pool safe for children and animals? :)

P.S. I'm thinking of creating "pool rules" to discuss with all children before they swim. Things like "no running", "no pushing", insisting that children who can't swim wear PFDs, and all the good stuff I learned in swimming lessons many years ago. Or maybe I should discuss expectations with parents? Although most parents I know are well aware of pool safety, so I might not need to have "rules". Could creating "pool rules" be going too far?