Some of you who follow my Facebook page may have seen updates about the birth of five puppies to my female dog, Sophie, in late April. For those who haven’t, I’ve compiled an online photo album that documents their growth and development over the past few months. If I had to choose one word to describe the whole process of being surrogate grandparents to these pups, it would be epic. Every day since their birth has been filled with interest, excitement, and wonder. From a neurochemical perspective, snuggling with puppies has done a lot to raise the collective oxytocin levels in our home. Over the summer, our front garden—with its jumble of humans and puppies lying together in the grass—often resembled something like an opium den, attracting a steady stream of “customers” from far and wide. Of course, this bliss was sometimes interrupted. I underestimated their collective destructive power. Up until about six weeks old, the fencing I had around my backyard pots, garden boxes, … [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...]
