During my last visit at Dog Therapy, Yara, one of my many fans, showed me a photo of her dog, Cosmos. Many of my fans come to see me because they miss their dogs back home.
I guess while they’re petting me they’re thinking about their own best friend.
Doesn’t Cosmo look handsome with his eye-make-up?
Yara, told me that the imprint of his heart was always there. It wasn’t shaved
or tattooed. What a special dog!
Thank you, Yara, for sharing your dog.
Thank you Malak Aly for the photo.
How great to get all this love and affection from these McGill students. I adored how they said I was so cute when I sat and gave them a high five and when I did a little dance for them. Here I am thinking about how lucky I am to be a dog.
A discussion got to Montreal on allowing dogs on the subway as of October 15. This surprised a student from Germany and another from Columbia who said that in their country dogs and cats have always been allowed on public transport. I have heard that even pigs and chickens are permitted on buses in Mexico.
Montreal will only allow dogs on with a muzzle. What is that? Then the nice law student from Germany said that instead of putting muzzles on dogs they ought to put them on violent people taking public transportation. I’m going to vote for him to install such a doggie law. VOTE!
Today I returned to the McGill Student Wellness Hub and made some new friends.
With students back in class (hopefully) I’ll be going back to my volunteer work at the
The Student Wellness Hub Animal Therapy, (SWHAT) initiative seeks to bring stress relief, joy, and companionship with furry friends.
I can hardly wait to go back to volunteering as I’m getting pretty bored hanging out inside (it’s freezing out) and mostly sleeping all day. Here are my friends at the Hub. Don’t you think we make a great diverse team?
Hope your Christmas is jolly and filled with good cheer!
Things are starting to move again and so last Saturday I had another volunteer gig. It took place at the McConnell Student Residence at McGill.
Lots of students took time off their studies to come and see me.
It was a lot of fun being petted by so many different hands.
Some even took out their phones and showed pictures of their dogs in different parts of the world. They all missed their dogs whether they came from Iran, Boston, Dubai, Libya, Germany or anywhere else.
Goes to show how popular dogs are!
Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want.
Greet people with joy.
Be excited about little treats.
Slow down and smell the flowers.
Go for long walks.
Be curious about everything.
Be loyal.
There’s always an opportunity to explore.
Sleep as much as you like.
It has been a while since I had children reading to me because of Covid but recently
I had the opportunity to work with Daniel, a young boy who happens to live in
the same apartment building as I do.
Although I liked all the children that read to me either at the library on
the island here or at the library in Verdun, Daniel is my favorite. Daniel has
a lot of ENTHUSIASM and an hilarious IMAGINATION but what I like the most about
him is that he never forgets to PLAY.
I have noticed that adults, in particular, seem to have lost their ability
to play and that makes a dog like me, who loves to play, want to go to sleep. There’s
more to life than being serious all the time!
Another thing I really like about Daniel is his SUPER POWER to read my mind.
He knows just when I need a break and will tell my dog mom:
I think Bau needs
to run.
So, Daniel and I play a game of tag. But he is always way too fast for me.
Another neat thing about Daniel is that he uses his SUPER MIND READING POWER
to say:
Bau is tired of running
And then he gives me a little pat on my head. Which I love!
We then return to our desk and I continue to listen to him read his stories.
Playing for just a short time allows us to concentrate once more. I guess
that’s the MAGIC OF PLAY.
Sometimes, I see Daniel in the elevator and I can’t help myself. I get so excited and want to jump on him
because I’m so happy to see him even though in my dog therapy training I was told not to jump on people.
It’s really difficult for me not to express all the joy in my little heart when I see him.
Soon Daniel will be moving away and that makes me sad. Already I miss him.
It’s finally on sale – a book which I have been working on for years.
Throughout these years the book’s title has changed. It first was Only the Lonely, inspired by Roy Orbison’s iconic song Only the Lonely and which I also included as a quote in the beginning of the novel.
Then the title became The Boy Next Door but I found it told only part of the story. The Set Up was the third title but after a bit of research I found that there were too many books with that title.
Finally, I settled with Just Before Sunrise because it evokes the question: What happened just before sunrise? Which is the whole point of the story.
Right now, Bau, who has been so tolerant throughout this process is still manifesting his patience and control. He is just eagerly waiting for me to finish this post and press publish so that he can go for his well earned walk.
I am very proud to present my dog Mom’s latest novel Just Before Sunrise. It is available in both e-book and paperback.
I hope that those of you who will read it will enjoy it.
Description on AMAZON
Carol Balawyder 