Let's Hear it for the Boys...

Last week was a period of transition around here.  Adam had a week off between leaving his previous job and beginning a new one, and so I was able to spend an entire week with all my boys... Adam, Charlie, and Rook.  I was excited to have some of that time to explore the city with my husband - something we haven't had a chance to do in a while.  Rook may not look back on that time as fondly because it also happened to be the week he had to say goodbye to his "boys".

We had debated about having Rook altered for awhile.  Our veterinarian said we could do it anytime after Rook turned five months, and Adam voted to have him fixed right away.  I wanted to wait until he was a bit older.  I had read that neutering too early could effect his growth rate.  But then I realized he is a very strong bulldog puppy, and if getting him fixed at 6 months might curb his growth a bit... well, that's not necessarily a horrible thing.  Plus, older bullys do not do as well under anesthetics and their recovery is longer.  Not to mention that Rook was getting a little too excited around one of the neighborhood dogs.  He just couldn't keep himself from humping poor Laika.  So we made the decision, and Rook got a little nip tuck.

To keep from spending the entire day worrying about our poor puppy, we headed out to Montreal's Jardin Botanique.  February may not seem like a logical time to be wandering around a garden, especially since it was also snowing that day.  But we were heading into the greenhouses for the Papillons en Liberte (Butterflies Go Free) temporary exhibit.  Like most things I convince Adam to do with me, he wasn't too excited about this adventure.  Someone had told him last year's exhibit included butterflies the size of his head, so he was sure that going to the exhibit was a bad idea.  I cannot confirm the actual size of last year's butterflies, but the butterflies we saw were not unusually large and none chased us around the greenhouse trying to eat us for lunch (the staff had planned ahead and left fruit out to keep the butterflies from munching on the visitors).  It was actually a beautiful and serene sight to see all of the butterflies fluttering around.  And as bonus, the botanical garden is across the street from the Olympic stadium, so I could not resist a photo op.  I win!

There were 'No Touching' signs 

for the butterflies, but the cacti

weren't so lucky.  Some were fuzzy, but that one was definitely prickly.

Zonked.

It turned out there was no need to worry about Rook making it through surgery.  When we arrived at the vet's office he was his goofy self and eager to get the usual hugs and scratches from us.  By the time we got him back home he was groggy from all the medication, and as hard as he tried to stay awake, he kept melting into a sleepy bulldog puddle.  Although he somehow managed to be wide awake as we prepared a salad so he could get a bite of that delicious lettuce.

"Who wants to play?"

Post-op, Rook has been a horrible patient.  Per the vet, he should be taking it easy - no running, no jumping, and no playing outside for ten days.  Ten whole days!  Rook didn't hear any of that, and he was back to his usual antics the very next day - running around the living room, jumping up on the sofa, and begging to play out in the snow.  He doesn't really seem to notice that anything is missing, but we'll see if he will be able to behave in a more gentlemanly fashion around Laika the next time we meet up.


On Monday, Adam started his new job at Warner Brothers Games.  I guess I'm not allowed to mention the game he is working on, so I will just say he is very excited to have the opportunity to be on this project and he is loving every minute of it.  And now that I have had time to clean up after a week of Adam lounging around the apartment, I am back to blogging. ;)