The Jeff R Project

For Christmas Chris’s step-dad sent us a care package full of treats for Rumble. Oh my god! We never have to buy dog treats again I think. There were so many! (Thanks Dave!) And his mom slipped in a nice box of her homemade shortbread cookies. They were delicious and Chris showed a great amount of restraint and made them last 2 days.

One of the other gifts in the box was a super nice (simple) coat for Rumble. We’ve expressed to Dave before that Rumble hates getting wet and with Vancouver Winter upon is, tis the season to be wet.

So we put the coat on Rumble and he froze. No surprise there, he doesn’t handle change or clothing very well. We’ve shown video of him in boots before. Have a look… This is what happened with the coat.

So what’s the miracle you ask?

That was exactly a week ago. As of now, he’s actually walking with his coat on!

Sadly, this proves something bad. It means that anything Rumble doesn’t know and “can’t” learn is either our fault, or simply because he’s hard headed. But that’s not news to anyone who met him.

Were it not for our iPhones, I don’t know how we’d share what we consider to be fun with the rest of the unsuspecting planet.

Yep, another Rumble video has been made.

This weekend was GORGEOUS, weather-wise. The concept of spring weather has hit Vancouver in full force and people are just loving it! So Chris and I took full advantage of it.

Yesterday, Chris and I hiked east, then south around Science World the Telus-sphere and along the south side of False Creek. We were going to go as far as the Cambie Bridge like usual, then back over into downtown, but given the absolutely phenomenal day, we kept going all the way to Granville Island and hiked around there. Then took the bus back into downtown, wandered some more, had some lunch (Taco Del Mar for the first time in years), did some `browsing`at Chapters and then made it home.

March 22, 2009 along the sea-wall.

Today (Sunday), we took the dog with us. After some domestic chores in the morning, we kitted up the dog (harness, leash, cookies, water) and headed for the dog park at Bute and Nelson in the West End. It`s a 2.5km hike according to Google maps and Rumble just loved it. And when we got there, there were about 30 dogs. Looked like they were having a Beagle meetup like the Schnauzer meetup we went to because about half the dogs were Beagles. Rumble had a great time. One big dog handed Rumble his ass when he got a bit too familiar, which is good. Rumble needs to learn he`s not always the top dog.

Then instead of going straight home, we decided to take the scenic route and headed straight south to Sunset beach and picked up the sea-wall going toward home. The sea-wall is always interesting. People roller-blading, biking, hiking, boys holding hands with other boys, dogs playing in the ocean etc. So much to see and do.

By the time we got home, we`d gone about 8km in total. Google clocked it at 6.5, but they insisted we must have taken Pacific Boulevard which is much more direct (ie: shorter) than the sea-wall.

Now we`re all wrecked. The dog is crashed. I`m doing my blog and Chris is fighting with the computer. Nobody is moving much. Rumble actually looks a little scared we might want to play again. Poor guy.

Sunday March 1, 2009.

On the first day of March, Vancouver was both wet and sunny. Sometimes at the same time, but mostly it alternated between the two. The smell and feel of Spring was in the air and it was easy to forget the horror that was this past Winter.

Through Meetup.Com I’ve been following a small group of Schnauzer parents (never owners) who wanted to get together and let the kids play (puppy playdate). Deb, the owner of the Meetup group hadn’t been successful in getting people to visit Richmond, but one of the members, Gerson, managed to put one together and rally the troups for a gathering at David Gray Park in Burnaby.

The weather forcast wasn’t overly cooperative at first predicting 87% chance of rain. However, it turned out to be a gorgeous spring day, for Vancouver.

Chris and I bundled Rumble and headed out to Burnaby, first taking the Skytrain to Patterson Station and then (mistakenly) walking south on Patterson to (really) Rumble Street. The weather was awesome and we nearly regretted our choice of coats etc. The walk was amazing and the view south was spectacular and fairly clear (see the picture – taken by Chris).

Once we got there we had a GREAT time. The park was HUGE and nicely fenced. To top it off, there were a TON of dogs. We actually had a hard time getting Rumble into the park because he was freaking out and sniffing at the fence. He thought we were going to take him away from all the other dogs.

We finally got him inside and he went bonkers after we un-leashed him. He ran around and shoved his nose into so many unmentionable puppy-parts you wouldn’t believe it.

Chris and I spent a good bit of time talking to some of the other parents (Schnauzer parents and non-Schnauzer parents) which was nice. We met Sharon and Dave, parents of Max who is from the same breeder Rumble was adopted from. And of course I met a ton of puppies, mainly because I was wearing the cookie bag. Never underestimate the power of food.

There were mostly medium to large dogs. In fact, Rumble may have been about the smallest dog there. We saw a Wiemeraner, Beagles, Labra-doodles, Shiba Inus and of course your average-unidentifiable “generic cute dog.”

Check out the videos. Overall it was a success (except two instances when Rumble went a little mental) so we’ll definitely be going again. But we won’t be walking from the Skytrain. All 3 of us were just wrecked by the time we got home. Rumble didn’t want to get out of his bag!

March 1 Meetup 1Technorati Tags: schnauzer, miniature schnauzer, mini schnauzer, schnauzer meetup, rumble schnauzer, burnaby, vancouver