Some may regard the very thought of routine as inexpressibly boring. But it isn't. Not when routine reflects how pleasant life can be. These are, more or less, chosen routines. We adopt them because they're reflective for the most part of the kind of lifestyle we aim for, incorporating them into our daily lives preferentially. And so it is with our daily hikes through the forest trails with Jackie and Jillie.

There are, of course, many aspects of life that fall outside routine and then things become disrupted. As it did for us early yesterday evening. It had been yet another glorious day of full sunshine. Cool, but after all, this is mid-October reaching toward November. It wasn't damp, and the wind was light so one can hazard that this was in fact, a perfect fall day.

We stopped at one juncture, at one of the wild apple trees, noting it has already lost most of its foliage, and though ample apples have fallen to the ground past ripeness, some remained on upper branches. My husband found two apples he had tucked into his jacket pocket the day before when a bonanza of apples had been encouraged to fall, with the help of a hefty stick for persuasion. And those he offered, bite by bite, to Jackie and Jillie.

The ground is littered with rotting apples, apples that have begun to mould and some touched with fungal growth, and we try to make certain that neither Jackie nor Jillie pick any of those up to munch on. Sometimes they're quicker than we are. Once, when he was about a year old, Jackie had nibbled on one of those apples and soon afterward began to exhibit signs of inebriation by the time we got home. His nervous system actually, was affected, and he couldn't quite stand straight.

We rushed him off to the emergency veterinarian hospital where he had an overnight stay and a charcoal treatment after he'd been induced to vomit up the apple bits. We wanted no repeat performance. Then of course there are the many and varied reports of people flicking their cannabis stubs as waste without a thought to the dangers inherent in that carelessness for dogs whose curiosity and appetite for just about anything, ingesting the discards has its consequences.

We're well aware that casual cannabis use is more common now than ever and people have a tendency to casually discard waste without a thought of the potential harm done to animals. Where once, years ago it was teens surreptitiously trying out weed in what they felt were parts of the ravine no one would pass by much less notice, now everyone feels free, with legal recreational marijuana use in Canada, to smoke up in public areas like the forest. It's usually done discreetly, but there's no hiding the characteristic odour of marijuana.

Yesterday evening after the puppies had eaten dinner they were taken out briefly to the backyard as usual. Suddenly, Jackie leaped into the air and began running about wildly, tail tucked firmly under his bony little behind. Once in the house, he was trembling, panting heavily, his heart beating wildly and wanting to be held. He has never been a cuddly little dog. Now, all of a sudden he wants to be held and comforted.

Once the comforting is over, his trembling stopped and he's on his own, the ritual of evincing shock, tail-tucking, wild capering about and panting resumes. Finally, he fell asleep last night, and slept soundly through the night. First thing in the morning out they went as usual, and abruptly the same pattern re-emerged. So that we spent hours holding and comforting the little fellow. Breakfast? Forget it. Relaxation? None of it.

We'd made an appointment with the veterinarian clinic and took him there at 2:30, where the vet on duty (our own was in surgery) examined him closely. We took our time explaining just what had occurred and how puzzling it all was. Could he have ingested something toxic? A thorough physical exam revealed him to be in excellent physical shape, heartbeat normal though accelerated, eyes, ears and mouth fine. Finally, the suggestion that we could be referred to a neurological veterinarian. X-rays, bloodwork, even an MRI.

The veterinarian, though youthful in appearance, told us he had worked as an emergency vet for 20 years and was familiar with the effects of cannabis ingestion on dogs, and Jackie didn't quite present as such canines would under the influence of THC, since he maintained good balance, wasn't weak, in short expressing the type of reaction that had sent us to the veterinarian hospital years ago when he had ingested mouldy wild apples.

We came home with medication that could be used in the next 24 to 48 hours to calm him. And to see whether the mysterious behaviour would abate and his behaviour return to normal. He's snoozing comfortably now on my snoozing husband's lap.