Cancer Selfies

Manitoulin Island

After the Grand Adventure that was every province west of Ontario, especially Alberta and British Columbia, I had no plans to slow down. I knew I needed smaller plans, that would fit between chemo sessions, and something like Manitoulin Island was a perfect little challenge.

As an asside, I don't know how I expected to manage anything under treatment. It was a race between the disease and the treatment to destroy my body. I was never going to be able to take the Manitoulin trip as I imagined.

On a beautiful, sunny day my aunt Nancy Fallat, uncle Terry and I set out for a quick tour of the eastern part of the island. We ate at the Anchor Inn (they messed up my order, but the order I got was probably safer for my condition than the loaded perogi I pined for.

Other highlights were the Ten Mile Point gift shop, stepping foot into Lake Manitou (largest freshwater lake on an island in a freshwater lake), and, best for my interests, we saw the swing bridge swing.

Plus, lots of Joey, the brand new (and very nervous) rescue dog. His nervousness had me leaving him alone

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Minnow the Corgi

Today the truly benevolent god of corgwen have blessed me with a generous gift: time with their precious child, Minnow.

Minnow is a corgi mixed with another sort of herding dog (which I forgot, because there was a corgi to play with) and is as soft as he is delightfully stubborn. Which isn't necessarily what I'd look for in a canine companion, but is a lot of fun on a Thursday.

Minnow knows a few tricks, and I was able to capture a few on video. They're in the comments.

Like Bennie before him, Minnow was an absolute dream come true. I love animals, especially the common dog, and few creatures have the power to steer your mood quite so powerfully. Today, my mood needed no correction, today was as sunny in fact as it was in metaphor. Minnow pushed me over the top.

I am truly glad that an item I had given up on for the Remission List was vanquished handily twice. Maybe there's hope for getting to see the geese leave me one last time.

Crossed paws.

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Maverick the Golden Retriever

An advantage of a small town hospital that isn't always available to larger centres (where administrators can be found on weekends) is that sometimes you can get a surprise dog visit. This weekend I won the Golden Retriever lottery and got to spend some quality time with the lovely and extremely soft Maverick.

His sidekick, Goose the cat, stayed home.

Maverick belongs to one of the staff members here and is known to come in and cheer up the patients when the human has time.

I, for one, am full of gratitude and joy at being included in this visit, these days I'm 100% in camp poodle, but growing up I was in love with the world's dopiest Labrador (and imagine the competition for that title) and barely drew distinction between the various retriever breeds.

Maverick was the smiling sunshine coloured ray I needed, and she was kind enough to leave behind enough golden glitter to keep the cleaning staff busy for days.

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The Band

Corgi Band day would have been nothing without the wonderful humans who showed up and made it happen. From left to right in the group shot, they are Thor, Catherine, Bruce, me, Alison, and Tom (The Jammers). Plus Bennie the corgi. These people made a very sick person's day (and week and month), for which im tremendously thankful.

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James Meets a Corgi

The List Formally Known as the Remission List has a wide variety of weird and fun things to do on it. From visiting all the historic locks of the Trent-Severn Waterway, to hearing each carillon in the province (country?) play a piece, to participating in a lottery and seeing certian animals that are dear to me. And while I like moose and beaver and painted turtles, no animal was closer to my heart than the beautiful corgi.

I genuinely expected this to be an easy one. I'd be out walking, someone else in the park would have a small wiggle of corgwen. I'd ask to pet them, mark something off my list, and have a moderately better day.

Instead, I had a magical day with my new corgi friend Bennie, and the band she brought along (coming in a future entry!) catapulted the moderately better I expected from crossing off this item to one of the best days I've had in the whole of 2024 (and I got to meet Wiarton Willy this year, a life long goal of mine)

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