The Great Reunion

Hi all! We hope you are happy and healthy out there!

Yes! We are home!

The trip to Nova Scotia was amazing, and we built a ton of memories, but as the saying in the title goes, there is no place like home. I’ll miss the ocean vistas and the friendly people of Nova Scotia; however, the grass and hills of the farmland, with the Rockies looming in the west, is where I’ve spent most of my life and where my heart is.

Also, it is where the pets are too.

We got in super late Monday. Technically, we got in early Tuesday morning, as it was just about a two-hour drive from the airport home. Thankfully, the car was right where we left it, and paying for parking was a breeze. We sent Adam and Annalise home by Uber, as heading back into downtown Edmonton would have added another hour to our trip, and we were pretty exhausted.

Bunsen lost his mind when he saw us, jumping around and punching us (his method of extreme affection), so much so that he paid for his puppy movements the next day with some stiffness.

Brix was waiting silently right next to Bunsen, like cats do, staring and watching. A ton of people thought Brix would be mad at us. Some cats apparently punish their people for leaving them, but all Brix wanted was to be picked up and held.

Obviously, Kris got to him first, and he nestled into her shoulder, laid his head down, and went right to sleep. It was pretty sweet.

After we unloaded and made sure there was water out for the duo, Kris and I went right to sleep.

Like Christmas, I couldn’t sleep in and wanted to go and get Bernoulli and Beaker as soon as possible. Waggles has intake at 7:30 AM now, and that’s when I wanted to go, but the other member of the party was sleeping.

To be fair, we went to bed at 1:30 in the morning…which would be like 4:30 in the morning with the time change from Nova Scotia.

The compromise was waiting until 8:30.

If you all saw the video, Bernoulli lost his damn mind when he smelled Kris, heard her, then saw her. He was bouncing around the drop-off office like T-I-double-Guh-Er. We generally discourage that kind of nonsense, but it was impossible to calm him down.

Beaker was very happy to see us too, but she’s our steady goodest girl and just wagged her tail and her whole body, sneaking in gentle licks to tell us how she felt.

Once we loaded the dogs up, it was home for the third reunion—the home team vs. the away squad.

The dogs were thrilled to see each other, with a tiny bit of jockeying for who was the “male” dog between Bunsen and Bernoulli for about 10 minutes.

Beaker was kissing Bunsen, which was super heartwarming. It was a long time that Beaker was away from Bunsen—the longest in her life—so we weren’t sure how she would deal with it. The reports were that she was doing fine, but it was still heart-melting to see their reunion.

After the chaos and barking of greetings died down, Brix popped out from his spot by the couch and immediately was lick-mauled by Bernoulli. Bernoulli would lick-maul Brix throughout the day a dozen times, and I caught a few of the moments on camera.

It didn’t take long, and soon everyone was half asleep or napping. Bunsen went back to sleep, Bernoulli CRASHED, Beaker jumped up on the couch to cuddle with Kris, Kris fell asleep, and Brix jumped into my lap.

I sipped on my coffee and built some social media content, listening to the purring and snoring.

It wasn’t lost on me that having that peace and those sounds is a blessing, and that moment in time was just as special as our trip to Nova Scotia.

My family was together again.

During the trip, a ton of mooseleg orders came in, and there were three orders that we messed up on (sorry about that—you know who you are!), so after getting some rest, Kris and I spent the rest of the day packing mooselegs to go out to the folks who ordered them.

Throughout the trip, hundreds of legs made it to folks, and we were sent dozens of photos. As it was with the stuffies and our books, it was surreal to see something that didn’t exist before come into existence based on our pets and then be cherished by people in different cities and countries.

If you are wondering, we have 7% or less of our stock of mooselegs left. It is likely we will sell out by Christmas, so check our website if you want one.

Kris and I have some very exciting news to share, likely next weekend, about something we’ve got cooking for the holiday season. It just “isn’t” quite there yet! HA! Stay tuned!

One of our favourite things we have created is a wall calendar that has the best of the best photos of the pets on it for folks. The calendar has fun dates related to the pets, but also holidays from other countries and different religions. Kris always does such a great job of building those dates, and I’ve learned a ton about how other countries celebrate holidays and what is going on with the major religions.

There are also fun science dates on there this year too!

Folks have been asking and yes, normally the calendar would be ready for pre-sale, but we have to wait until the end of August to see how the threatened 50% tariff from the American administration on a vast array of Canadian goods shakes out. One of the things that could be tariffed at 50% is Canadian paper products, and that seems likely to include our calendar and books.

I cannot price the calendar for Americans without knowing this, so we will have to wait.

The calendar is done (and it’s honestly the best one we’ve made), and all we have to do is send it to proof and then print, so I expect to get that finished once we know what is going on.

August is winding down. The mornings and evenings are cool with a bite in them. Kris doesn’t want to admit it, but I have told her over and over again that the cool bite is the kiss of winter.

Within a week, Kris and I will be back at school prepping for the September start-up. We have a TON of exciting things coming and events to talk about…but for now, I think that’s a wrap.

Talk next week!