Tumbleweed

We’ve spent the last couple weeks in our former home of Auckland, NZ. It’s been great fun catching up with old friends and colleagues and visiting some of our favorite spots around town. We lived here for nearly six years which is about as long as we’ve lived anywhere so it definitely feels like a bit of a homecoming to us. There’s a significant amount of new housing all over the city which explains why the roads seem more clogged than we remember and the buses are even more unreliable due to a lack of bus drivers. So if you’re interested in moving to NZ to drive a bus, they would love to have you!  Right now we’re housesitting in the posh neighborhood of Epsom taking care of a Japanese Spitz named Fred and a tabby cat named Albert. Fred is a funny dog who likes to hang out/sleep under chairs and couches, only eats cat food and is an unbelievable retriever. Albert mostly ignores us but periodically likes pets and spends most of his time carousing in the neighborhood.    I...

My last blog post was from Groveland, CA where I was housesitting and taking care of three dogs - Lulu, Penny and Timo. They were a real joy to be around and were keen runners although Penny’s short legs only allowed her to go about half of the distance of the other two. I also took them into Yosemite National Park one day which was rather ambitious as I had to have them on leash the whole time. Have you tried walking three dogs on a leash all at the same time? I don’t recommend it especially if they’re dogs who are mostly free range and aren’t all that accustomed to being on a leash. The craziest part though was right when we got to the park, Timo, the puppy, bolted for the snow and managed to escape from his collar which was slightly too big on him. He’s then bounding in the snow, which I think was a new concept for him, while I’m chasing after him with the other two dogs in tow. After some shenanigans, I managed to pin Timo in a snow bank and get his collar back on him only to have ...