Story 4: "The Adoption"

Happy 2019! 

My first posting of this year will be about how it all started... the story of how we adopted Oreo (Rory) last March from Grimsby, Ontario. I thought it would be a nice way to celebrate a belated birthday with him too, as he turned 5 years old on January 30th. Happy belated birthday little guy!

I hope you like it. It's a story that I've been wanting to tell for a while now so I'm glad it's finally finished.... between night classes, a full-time job and Christmas, it's been a struggle to find any spare time. Anyway, I had a few more stories up my sleeve so stay tuned and I'll make an effort to update my blog more often. One of my co-workers recently complained about my lacklustre schedule, so I don't want to disappoint too many more people.

Thanks for reading and stay warm y'all (:

Third R&R story: "The Sleepover"

Happy September! I hope that everyone had a good long weekend with lots of sunshine and relaxation. Summertime sure flies by quickly.

I am proud to say that I finished the third Ran and Rory story (see below). I hope you like it...it's about how Ran and Rory (Oreo) finally became really good friends after first ignoring each other. I guess some quality "together" time in the same house will make even the shyest dog come out of his "shell".

Thanks for reading!

 [narrated by Ran the dog]

For the past couple of weeks, Ritsy and I have been staying at Rory’s house with Matt and Maki. Ritsy is selling her condo so that she can buy a house with a basement, out of which she plans to run her own dog grooming business.

At first, me and Rory just ignored each other. I still couldn’t understand him and he smelled funny.

But soon after, we became really good friends!

Now we do everything together and even chase each other around the park. So much fun! We even stay at each other’s houses each week and cuddle together on the couch. Rory turned out to be a really great little guy and I don’t think he smells funny anymore.

THE END (and Ritsy did end up buying a bungalow with a basement 😊)

First story: Ran and Rory's chum-chum tales

Hello hello! Well, it's been a SUPER long time since I posted last, but I'm happy to finally be back. I mean, what is 3 years anyway in the grand scene of things? 🙂 Lots happen in a short amount of time, but the most notable thing for me is that I adopted a dog. Yay! This "new acquisition" is the main reason I've decided to start posting again...

Ran and Oreo (June 2018)

Over the past few months I've decided to draw a little comic series about my new pooch Oreo. He's a tiny mixed breed dog and is hilarious and quirky in so many ways. He makes me laugh every time I look at him because he has so many strange habits and behaviours. What a wonderful thing dogs are; they're great company and they're good for exercise too!

Anyway, here is my first bunch of drawings about Oreo (and Ran, my mother's dog). I changed Oreo's name to "Rory", but everything else is as-it-happened. Since Oreo is a rescue dog, I wanted to show how interactions with him and his new environment might confuse local dogs (not sure if this is true at all but I thought it would be intriguing). Enjoy! There will be more to come...

Drawings for our parents

Over the past month, I spent some time making illustrations for my mother and M's parents, for no particular reason (see below).

I have more free time these days, so I thought that they would be nice gifts for our parents, since they're easy for me to make but personalized enough that they might enjoy them. I always feel a bit awkward that M's parents are always so nice to me and I never really do anything for them in return (except show up at their house). Hopefully these small contributions can act as a form of appreciation, as I know that it's difficult to accommodate a finicky vegan city girl at the best of times. 

In other news, next week is Ran (the dog)'s first birthday! Yay! He is the light of my mother's life and such a wonderful companion that we decided to buy him a cake and celebrate in the park. Awwww.....dogs are such amazing creatures. 

M's parents with Shelby the dog

Drawing of my mother and Ran the dog

More drawings from 2013

Here are two more drawings from 2013, February and April respectively.

Celebrating Matt's birthday at the Rhino, Feb 2013.

Our visit to Homossassa in Florida, April 2013.

The original idea for these drawings was to create a calendar for 2014. However, the cold winter and sheer laziness made it difficult for Matt and I to be organized enough to make it happen in time, so we decided to just draw one image a month for the rest of the year. This weekend, we will be working on May!

Another great thing that happened this week is that spring is finally here, hurray! The days are getting longer and the trees are budding. Such a great thing to see after so long a winter.

So this coming weekend will be my last weekend in Montreal--next Friday I am driving a car (with all of my stuff) back to Toronto. It's a bittersweet return, and one with which I have mixed feelings. In the first place, I wasn't planning on staying in Montreal longer than my contract of 8 months, but since I've been here I've come to realize what an amazing city it really is. Montrealers seem more relaxed and friendly than in Toronto, and there is so much more history and pride with Quebecers than there ever seems to be with Ontarians. It's nice to live in a city where people are excited about being who they are, and where they still partake in historical customs from the past. While living here, I never felt like I was missing out on anything, and I totally understand why Quebecers choose to stay here. 

Honestly, if there was any chance for me to find a permanent job here, I would have considered staying. I suppose Quebec is like a cool secret that one can only find out about if you speak the language fluently (which I sadly do not). Big sigh.

On a different note, here is a photo of a cool little depanneur that opened up near my apartment:

What's cool about this shop is that the same shop was drawn in the story of "Paul en appartement"by Michel Rabligiati. His story takes place in the 1980s, but the store looks exactly the same, which is super awesome!

If I have a chance, I will post it later on. 

Hope you have a great week, and happy spring!

.M