Some days just transform themselves into errand days. Things pile up and nag that they've got to be done and there is simply no way to avoid devoting a day to them.  When such errands demand attention and they exclude Jackie and Jillie they're indignant about it, hardly believing we could be so cruel as to leave them alone together at home while we go about duty-calling.

By some strange alchemy they know on Tuesday mornings that we'll soon be absent. As a result their behaviour is entirely different from normal. Jackie expresses his upset emotions by feeling ill and refusing to eat. Jillie will never turn down an offer to eat, but she too mopes in the knowledge we're about to leave the house and our absence will suddenly change the familiar comfortable interior of the only place they've known as home into a hostile, bleak place that holds them prisoner.

Subtle changes in our morning routine inform them of what is on the near horizon. This morning, as we prepared to leave the house, they both took themselves upstairs. We could hear their not-too-distance-muffled upset whining that soon turned into howls. They were on the bed in our bedroom and in deep mourning.

All was forgiven when we returned, shopping done with. The supermarket was busier than usual, which means at that time of the morning there might have been a dozen shoppers in a fairly large interior. From the supermarket we went to the bank, and from there to the pharmacy to pick up our ordered medication. After a breakfast that Jackie refused to eat we hauled ourselves out to the ravine for our usual hike-about.

A lovely, lightly cool, mightily windy, half-sunny day that reached 16C at its peak, Jackie and Jillie poked on ahead of us, off leash. There was a handful of other people about, but not that many that we felt they would be better off leashed, so they had the freedom to roam about here and there, always in sight. It makes for a more satisfactory leisure and adventuresome route for them, though they never complain when they're leashed.

Soon as we got back home, we prepared to go right back out again. This time, knowing we weren't heading out to do the food shopping, they pranced and leaped about us, insisting on coming with. And they were meant to, because we headed off to their appointment with the groomers. Another separation, more wailing, but they knew where they were and what they were there for. We returned an hour and a half later to pick them up, but in the interim there were other errands to take care of.

We dropped by Staples office equipment for printer ink cartridges. Not to enter the store, but to speak to one of the store clerks in the parking lot, to explain what we needed so he could get it for us and we could pay by credit card. All stores other than those deemed critical, are closed for the next three weeks under 'stay-at-home' orders resulting from ongoing spikes in coronavirus cases.

From there we drove to the pet-food store that we usually shop at. It too was not 'open' to receive the physical presence of shoppers. A long table fitted across the entrance doors kept clients outside the store and from the cash register in the interior hard by the doors, a clerk took our order then went off to fetch the large bag of Acana dog kibble we use for Jackie and Jillie, produced in Alberta.

Jillie

 We finally picked our two little rascally companions up, each handed to us outside the door of the spa by one of the attendant/groomers, both puppies perfectly groomed, their legs frantically flailing the air as they tried to leap from the groomers' arms to ours. Throughout all these transactions everyone masked and careful to maintain distancing. How our lives have been altered....! 

Jackie