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• May 2020 • prliving.ca
The most unusual Mother’s Day:
a nest refilled with gratitude for pets & people BY ISABELLE SOUTHCOTT | isabelle@prliving.ca
M
y house looks like a daycare. Baby gates, stuffed animals strewn all over the floor. A chalk board with notes and reminders. Treats stuffed in all my jacket pockets. If you didn’t know better, you’d think I have a toddler. And I do. But unlike the two human toddlers I had 20 years ago, this toddler has four legs and a tail. Scotiapride’s Acadian Jig is a dog. A Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever, one of Canada’s own. I visited Nova Scotia last fall to catch up with friends and bring her home. But home as we all know, is where your heart is, and although I’ve lived on the West Coast for more than 25 years, I’ll always be a Bluenoser. Coast to coast, Canada is a great country. I’ve always known that but like many, I’ve taken it for granted. The COVID-19 pandemic changed that. Like you, I wept the day I heard the news about the murders in Nova Scotia. Another terrible tragedy in an already difficult time. Not a day passes that I don’t count my blessings. I’m grateful for so many things, including the fact that my parents chose to put down roots in Canada rather than the United States where we lived when I was a toddler. This pandemic has given me time. Time that I’m spending with my youngest son since his program at BCIT moved online. I know it’s not an ideal way to learn and I wish it wasn’t so, but I look at it as an unexpected gift. Last month, he took me flying. It’s the first time I’ve been in plane piloted by Alex and my heart swelled with pride and love for this child of mine. Like the rest of the world, we’ve experienced life as we’ve never experienced it before and although we don’t know when our new reality will end, we do know that it won’t change overnight.
“[This time is] an unexpected gift. Last month, he took me flying. It’s the first time I’ve been in a small plane piloted by Alex and my heart swelled with pride and love for this child.” This year, Mother’s Day falls on Sunday May 10. On that day we will celebrate mothers everywhere but for me, it’s extra special, as on that day 23 years ago, I became a mother for the very first time. This year, things will be different. I usually visit my 90-year-old mother at her assisted living home in Comox. Instead, I will email, send her a card and a little something. I didn’t expect to see my eldest son Matthew, as he lives up north, and two of our step kids live elsewhere, so I’ll be celebrating with Alex, my stepdaugther Lauren, and my fur babies. These days, my full-time kids are my pets. Although our two duck tollers, Hunter and Jigs, and cat Boots, might not do anything special on May 10, having them in our lives is special enough. When kids leave home, many of us start filling the void with pets. It’s easy to see why; they bring us so much joy and who couldn’t use a bit more joy in their lives? Jigs makes us laugh when she hauls an old egg carton out of the recycling bin or when she latches on to my furry slippers as I walk or when she drives us crazy with tennis balls. “It takes a long time to make a good dog,” I say looking at Grandpa Hunter, who is almost 13. Still, I can’t help but marvel at how Jigs sits patiently
