Christmas in Courtenay

My parents bought a townhouse in Courtenay on Vancouver Island in 2024 and this was our second family Christmas out there. For those of you that have never been to the Island, its a stunning mountainous landscape and in winter there's constantly steam and fog rising out from the forests.

There's only about 45 minutes of daylight where its not raining, but if you can be outside in that window its an excellent opportunity for a hike and some gorgeous landscapes.

Neighbouring Comox as an air force museum and, continuing the theme from our last post, they have an annual contest among the units on the base to see who can decorate the preserved aircraft outside in the best way. There were no wrong answers, but this plane with antlers and a red nose was certainly a strong contender for my vote. Kathryn has also really mastered night photography on her phone and got some incredible flares and streaks to bring some extra energy to this picture.

Of course the real Christmas Miracle was Wesley being the centre of attention and getting all the love he so richly deserves. He remains a pretty nervous traveller so bringing him there takes some effort but once he arrived he took right to it, clearly remembering the layout and the different people from his extended stay last year.

Quarantined with a Kitty

My friend Serena is maintaining both her relationships and eye for composition by taking pictures of colleagues outside their homes, while maintaining appropriate physical distancing, during the pandemic. She asked us to participate in this series and was kind in providing the original files from her shoot for me to share on our blog and keep for the future. I really appreciate opportunities like this, since normally one or the other of us is behind the camera and we don't have enough photos of the pair of us.

On March 12, the entire office at PDFTron was told to work remotely until the ongoing Covid situation was under control. I felt fortunate to have job stability and to be working at a flexible company that could implement such a change quickly, but was also quite new to the position and somewhat concerned about meeting our ambitious next few months of targets with limited access to our team.

Kathryn was driving a ferry 3 days a week on the Sunshine Coast, which was considered an essential service, but neither of us were relishing the distance during such a stressful time. She had signed on to work that gig over the winter, with an agreed end date of March 31.

I have now worked for PDFTron longer from my home than in their office and everyone has come to terms with the challenges of distances. Kathryn is back at home, but her usual summer jobs are all scuppered until Transport Canada gives the go ahead. Even then, it will be some time until the cruise ships are in town and the demand for tourism is high enough to keep their services in demand. Throughout all of this, Wesley has been a total joy.

He is full of energy and affectionate around the clock, following us both like a little ginger shadow and making sure we always have someone to talk to. When we first got him, it felt like it was too soon but he was just irresistible, but with the circumstances of the last month he couldn't have fallen into our lives at a better time.

Wesley

We were not ready for another cat. And in complete agreement on the topic. Maybe in December or early 2021 we would open our hearts and our home up to a new little friend. Yet, despite any number of quotes from Sun Tzu to Gandhi about the virtues of planning ahead, we were totally unable to resist this little bugger when he showed up in our lives.

Our friend Lisa had adopted a new friend for her current cat, but he turned out to be too much of an excitable jerk to live with another animal. However, he harnessed that same energy in making himself completely irresistible to us. When faced with the notion of him returning to the SPCA, we knew in 30 seconds that he was coming home with us instead. With fair warning about his ability to make you act against your own best interests, I introduce you all to Wesley "Danger Zone" Warren Taylor of Orange.

 Being a little mysterious is part and parcel with being a cat and Wesley is no exception. Although he is estimated to only be three years old, he started life as a street cat in the city of Delta. We have no idea what his life was like or how he started out, but it sounds like life was pretty hard on his own. When a good Samaritan fed and trapped him, he had flees and a broken tail.

After inspection by a vet they removed all but an inch of his tail and had to pull one of his upper canines. We have only known him without a tail and honestly think he carries it well and has a distinctive look, so its turned out to be to his advantage.

Despite being a floor model. rather than mint in box, he is undeniably adorable and the camera loves him almost as much as everyone he meets. Its only been a short while so far, but he has already returned some of the light and love that had been missing from our home since last March.