My Visit to Canada

Author: Mary Winburn

For almost two years, I have been a member of the Standard Poodle-Caniche Royal group on Flickr, an online photo sharing community. Members can join various interest groups and post photos in the group as well as comment on photos and participate in group discussions. Groups sometime get together for actual meetings.

In April of this year, I had one such meeting for Florida members of the group. A couple from Toronto visiting Florida relatives was in attendance. As I had often admired photos of several Poodles in the group from Canada, we talked about me and my Poodles visiting Canada. I had always thought how great it would be to visit these Poodles and their owners, so in the middle of May, my hubby and I packed our camper and with our three Poodles, left for Canada!

Our first stop was Montreal to visit our group leader Johny Day and his solid-colored girl Holly. Johny had often commented on my photos about how much he liked my two partis (which were the first partis in the group, so we arranged to visit him first. There was also another reason he was first. We were bringing him a parti puppy from Jeff and Tracy at Blue Willow Poodles. (There’s a whole other story about the puppy that can be found on my photo stream and our group discussions.) Johny was our tour guide for Montreal, and we walked all over Old Montreal with our five Poodles as well as taking a carriage tour of Old Montreal with all the Poodles. We also ate lunch with the Poodles in an outdoor area of a café. Talk about turning heads! We were celebrities everywhere we went.

Our next stop was to see another friend who is a dog walker in Montreal. She mainly walks Standard Poodles and has up to nine at a time (her own two included)! We were joined by another friend from New Hampshire and her two Poodles for a play date up on Mont Royal, a high area close to downtown Montreal. What fun we had playing up there with all the Poodles!

Another day was spent in Ottawa visiting a friend and her two Poodles. My friend Johny and his two Poodle girls joined us at the tulip festival there. Regrettably, dogs were not allowed in the actual tulip garden; however, we were able to enjoy the outside perimeter of the garden, again getting lots of attention!

Our final destination was Toronto where we had a huge Poodle party at the local dog park. There were over 20 Poodles and people in attendance. We celebrated the second birthday of our photo group as well as the birthday of our founder Johny Day! Even though it was way too cold and rainy for this Florida girl, the Poodles had a ball!

Would I do it again? You bet! The camaraderie among Poodle people is fabulous!