Monday, April 16, 2012

The Sweet and the Sad

The boy's Easter break has finally come to an end. He spent three days visiting my parents up the shore. Apparently, two of those days were spent helping guys on a fishing boat load crab pots and rope. I was very pleased to hear that Sean put in many hard hours work and (finally) got a taste of the working world.

'V' spent Friday night with the girls from work at the boss' house learning how to make tasty treats called 'cake pops'. One apparently takes a cake, squishes it up with icing, forms it into a roundish shape, dips the result into coloured icing, decorates then...voila! I've included three pics from the evening. Apologies if they seem a bit grainy as she took them on her Playbook so she could email them to me. Apparently, the more alcohol consumed the greater the creativity.

Aliens, Frogs and Dogs (oh my!)

Sheep...in various stages of undress


Dogs and a sheep and a pig
 As you can see, you're pretty much free to create what you're imagination can whip up (keep it clean, though, if it's for a kid's party). I bet these bad boys would be really popular at party for five year olds. I'd highly recommend that you hand them out as they are leaving your house as you gotta know that many of those pretty decorations are going to end up on your carpet, or sofa, or wherever. I say pass them out with the goodie bags at the end of the party so they can shed their decorations while sitting in their little car seats in the back of their mother's Prius or Beemer or whathaveyou...

I took this past Friday off so we could run a couple of errands and to take Sean to the Canadian Forces recruiting office downtown. We figured it was about time for him to see somebody down there regarding career options in the military. We also figured that it wouldn't hurt to have somebody other than ourselves stress to him the importance of his sciences and math in school towards a getting a job (that he wants) in the navy. Hopefully some of that will sink in over the final two years of school.

Friday was also a sad day for our family. We finally made a tough decision that we had been putting off for some time. Our greyhound 'Jet' has been having pain in his neck since last November. We took him to the vet in February and he was sedated and X-rayed in March. No definitive cause could be given for his pain, but the vet suggested that Jet could be shipped off to the veterinary college in PEI for an MRI. Even with a diagnosis, there would be no guarantee that a surgery would be successful.


Jet (aka Sharp Shooter) in 2008

Jet was on pain killers for the past few weeks, but even they were doing little for him. We finally decided on Friday to schedule an appointment with the vet to take him in for 'the final visit'. Needless to say, the day ended on a sad note but we are convinced we did the right thing for him.

We had the rescue greyhound originally known as Sharp Shooter for four years. He was aloof by nature, much like your regular household cat. His normal day consisted of mooching during meal preperation and sleeping for about 16 hours a day. Jet did not fetch or cuddle on the sofa and was not a great conversationalist but we'll miss him just the same. Below he was captured in a rare moment of glee..

"Scratch my tummy and I'll bite you!"

8 comments:

Cathy Olliffe-Webster said...

Oh Alan. I am so, so sorry to hear about Jet. I know you all loved him so much. Poor baby. But yes, I think you did the right thing.
Awww... I was going to say how much I loved those cake pops - I mean, they are really STELLAR - V is so talented!!! But now I'm just sad about Jet.
Hugs to everyone in your family.

Laurita said...

Awww. Poor Jet. That is a tough decision, but no one wants a good pet to suffer.

Now I'm sad too, although V's cake pops look like they could cheer anyone up. I'm not that creative. I'm just going to eat icing out of the container.

Aaron Polson said...

Godspeed, Jet. You did the right thing, Alan. Hard as hell, but the right thing. Take care.

K.C. Shaw said...

Poor Jet! I'm sorry to hear about him.

The sheep pops are adorable. I would eat one in honor of Jet if I had one to eat.

Alan W. Davidson said...

Cathy- Thanks. The time seemed right. Shall pass along hugs.

Laurita- Yeah, the tasty cake pops consoled us over the weekend. And the icing WAS tasty out of the container as well (though the green looked kinda wierd in my beard).

Aaron- Thanks, man.

Kate- Thanks. I'd send you one but I'm pretty sure it would be dust by the time it made it to the south (the warmer temps there would probably get the whole thing pretty gooey).

Kara McElhinny said...

Poor pup. Sorry, allen! That is always hard.

Heidrun Khokhar, KleinsteMotte said...

Is Sean in cadets? That's a great start.
Sorry to hear that Jet had to leave you.

Katey said...

I'm late to the party, Alan, but so sorry to hear about Jet. It's such a hard thing to do--you have my sympathy.

On the sweet note, though, damn those cake pops are adorable. I'd heard of them and wondered what exactly they could be. Awesome.