The Bridge to Nova Scotia

I haven’t really talked about the Corona virus here. I haven’t really seen the need to, as as homesteaders and home schoolers, social distancing and self isolation don’t really effect us they way it has impacted so many others.

I feel for the kids now home from school, who don’t entirely understand why they can’t go outside and play with their friends like they used to. I feel for the parents staying home with their kids. I ache for the ones that can’t. This is a stressful time and I pray we weather the storm together and come out the other side united and victorious, but still with our identities and freedoms in tact.

So, for the past few weeks, we have been doing our best to stay in , unless necessary. That is, until today. As frequent readers will remember, our dog, Zoe had babies two months ago. Which means over the past two months, we have played host to seven, curious, playful, friendly, cuddly puppies, raising them until they were old enough to go to their forever homes. Sadly, our Red Island does not seem to have a pool of people big enough to come and buy these sweet little ones, and so 6 of the puppies were sold off Island. We arranged to meet the new owners in Truro, a week after their eight week mark hit. (It was just what was convenient at the time for everyone.)

As the days drew closer, however, I realized that the 28th of March was too far off. If these puppies were going to reach their new homes, before the bridge closed to nonessential traffic, we needed to head out, asap.

So we rescheduled everyone to today. Miraculously, everyone was able to meet.

Today started at 6:30am. We slipped out to the barn and team worked those chores into completion within half an hour. We jumped into the car, and ate our breakfast as we pulled out of the driveway. And we were off. Three dogs, seven puppies, four humans, and our bottle goat, Patience. It was quite the packed car.

Our first stop was in Truro, to meet three of our puppies new owners. We pulled into Masstown Market at just a few minutes after 10, and even though we weren’t supposed to meet until quarter after, our first family was already there waiting for us. We handed her Sam, her new puppy, but tried to keep our distance as best as we could. She pulled the puppy close and with tears in her eyes explained how she had lost her husband just a few short months ago. S.A.M. had been his initials. Oh how I wish I could have hugged her. She thanked us for the puppy, and promised to love him and take great care of him, and then disappeared into her vehicle.

It wasn’t long before our next new puppy owner showed. She picked up little Finn and asked if he was a cuddler. I  confirmed he was. He was MY favourite cuddler of the group. (My daughter has her own favourite, but She’s clearly wrong.) She explained how 4 months ago her dog, her cuddle buddy and her best friend had died. She hugged little Finn and told us we had no idea how much this little puppy meant to her, to have that back in her life.

And then the next Father showed. He had run out from his house while his wife preoccupied their kids, to pick up this puppy as a surprise. The kids had been having a hard time with the isolation, and this little puppy was going to give them hours and days and months of love and entertainment.

From there we got in our car and headed out to Moncton to meet the last two families we had booked to meet. We made it to about Amherst when we got an email asking if we could meet in Truro TODAY to sell our last available puppy! If only we had gotten that an hour sooner!

We quickly emailed back to explain we had left Truro, but if they could  come closer to Moncton, we’d be happy to meet them. To our surprise they just emailed back with ‘when and where?’

We quickly arranged to meet them back in Amherst after we dropped off the other two puppies in Moncton.

By the end of the day, we met the first three families from Truro, met two couples in Moncton (one of which had driven all the way from Ontario to meet us), and then ran back to Amherst to meet the final family.

We knew very little about the last family as they had just messaged that day, but as I pulled the puppy from our car, the Mom was opening the back door of their car, while asking their daughter if she was ready to see her new ‘dresser’?

“But it’s a little fuzzy, though!” She said.

Her daughter’s eyes lit up at the sight of the puppy. All she could do was hold the puppy close to her chest for about ten minutes. It was the most adorable reaction.

From there, we stopped in a deserted little park next to the water for the sandwiches I had made before we left,  and fed our little goat. We took a breather from a very hectic day and snapped some pictures of our little goat, who is quickly becoming our mascot. And then, we headed home.

It was a long day, but a very worthwhile day. I know puppies are not a necessary service, but to the heart, sometimes they are. So I am so glad we were able to meet all those families and hopefully touch their lives in a very real way.

And if that means we isolate for 2 weeks? I’m willing.