We weren't sure how long the drive would take. Particularly since we'd made the appointment for Tuesday, the day following the long Easter week-end, when we were fairly certain that the Ottawa highways would be stuffed with traffic, since people tend to return to work after a long week-end, and the day following call in sick. So it seems. And sure enough, traffic was backed up and slow.

It hardly mattered all that much in any event, since we'd left ample time for ourselves. The appointment was for 11:00 a.m. and we left the house just a tad before eight. We had time to spare.
We'd originally thought of cancelling the appointment since the weather forecast we'd heard a few days earlier warned of a considerable snowstorm. But it was amended a day later, and the possibility of snow had been reduced to 40%, and the temperature would rise to three degrees, under an afternoon sun.

So off we set on this preliminary visit to the Ogdensburg veterinarian service we'd heard such raves about. We had decided to take Jack and Jill there to be neutered and spayed rather than have it done in Ottawa. For one thing, we wanted it done by laser; more efficient, less pain, swifter recovery. In Ottawa only two veterinarian clinics offer laser surgery. And they feel entitled in charging about ten times what the service in Ogdensburg costs.

Have the spay done here and pay over a thousand dollars; the neutering a hundred dollars less. Do it in Ogdensburg, and the cost is $135 for each of our puppies. So many people had advised us to look into the services there, so we looked on line and liked what we saw, spoke by telephone and made arrangements to get physicals for our puppies and bloodwork done the week before scheduling surgery.

Today was the day for the physical and bloodwork, though we were advised by the clinic it could all be done in one fell swoop the very day of the surgery. We thought we'd feel more comfortable doing it this way.

We discovered that although Ottawa had managed to escape the snowstorm, the further south we drove, evidence arose that the snowstorm did strike regardless, and from Oxford Station to Cornwall it was a white, white world once again. A surpassingly lovely landscape. Which made the drive all the more pleasant. When we got to the Rideau River crossing, the sky turned dark again. And when we arrived at the St. Lawrence River, a white fog engulfed the river itself. When we drove over the Seaway International Bridge, a long, looong, affair linking Ontario to New York, visibility on the bridge was perfect, but nothing could be seen glancing over the sides toward the St. Lawrence.

The veterinarian hospital was easy to find, a rural practise on a country road just outside town, aptly enough named Town & Country Veterinarian Hospital. When we arrived there was no one else in the waiting room. We were over an hour early for that appointment. Because it was a quiet time, however, one of the veterinarians saw us almost immediately and checked out our little imps and had bloodwork done.

Activity in the place became frenetic soon after our arrival, and the waiting room swiftly filled with people and their dogs awaiting their appointments. We came across another couple with two dogs, also from the Ottawa area. And we found that the local people who drifted in with their pets extremely courteous making an effort to acknowledge the presence of other people. 

By the time we returned the route we had taken to get there, the snow that had so brilliantly enveloped the landscape had melted under the gaze of the now fully-exposed sun. We'll be returning in a week's time for their little scamps' surgery.