Some of you that follow my Facebook page have probably seen my updates detailing the birth of five puppies to my female dog (named Sophie) in late April. For those of you that haven’t seen them, I have compiled an online photo album of the last few months, detailing their growth and development. If I were to come up with a single word that describes the whole process of being surrogate grandparents to these baby canids, it would be ‘epic'. Every day since their birth has been a day of interest, excitement, and wonder. From a neurochemical perspective, snuggling with puppies has done a lot to raise the collective oxytocin levels at our house. Over the past summer, our front garden with its jumble of humans and puppies lying lethargically in the grass has at times resembled something like a opium den, attracting a steady stream of "customers" from far and wide. Of course this bliss has been interrupted on occasion. For example, I definitely under-estimated their collective, … [Read more...]
Horse medicine: good medicine
I have always liked horses, even though I wouldn't consider myself a horse person: a feat which in modern times requires not just a great love for these majestic beasts, but an equally large wallet for their feed and care. Personally, I prefer dogs for their relative low maintenance and portability, but I am always happy to make friends with horse owners, just so I can hang out with my equine buddies. My first real experience with a horse was as a young man at the age of 19, when I had been hired as an actor to play the lead in a half-hour CBC family special, called "One Boy, One Wolf, One Summer", co-starring a character actor named Michael Ironside. The show was just about as sappy and awful as the title suggests, but it was one of my first gigs as a young actor, and decked out in cowboy gear, I was meant to look like I could actually ride a horse and shoot a gun. I was taught to ride horses by Danny Virtue, a long time industry insider; not just to how to ride a horse, but also how … [Read more...]
