Goodbye dear Holly Cat and An ode of sorts to Spring.
It saddens us to write of the passing of our dear Holly on May 15th, 2026. Our Dog had the best life a dog could have. She was going to be 12 this summer.
We first met Holly a week or two after she was born, in August of 2014. We took her home some weeks later, and I personally got a crash course of what it was like to have a dog. Growing up, I never had dogs – we were a cat household so it was all new to me. Mike grew up with dogs. Especially Labrador retrievers. Our Holly looked like a lab and she acted like a lab. Her dad was a full Lab, but her mom was a mixed breed that included Alaskan Sled Dog, Husky, and Boxer.
Holly loved to run. She loved to go everywhere with us (especially Mike – who took her pretty much everywhere with him, with very few exceptions. When I started doing the mail, she’d join me on the route. If she didn’t come with me, she’d head to work with Mike, where various customers got to know and hang out with her while Mike worked at their house. In the summer she loved swimming in the lake, going for boat rides and soaking up the sun, or snoozing on the outside couch after a long day of chasing a stick in and out of the lake.
She was great with the kids. She’d play with them, especially Rodger in the lake. She tolerated them laying on her, and if she got tired of it would simply remove herself from the situation – no bark, no bite. She sure sounded mean when she would bark at cars going by or people stopping in, but she was kind of a scaredy cat, and was cat like in the sense that she wasn’t particularly affectionate unless she wanted to be. You could always tell she was happy when she’d weave through your legs. That’s one way you knew she liked you, and was content. When she did feel like being a lap dog, it was particularly special and you soaked it up because it was not often.
Holly wasn’t the biggest fan of syrup season, as it was a lot of sitting around and hanging out in the sugar shack. She wasn’t always allowed in there say if we were finishing a batch, she’d either be right outside the door, or up at the house, but mostly she’d lay in her bed and when you got up to go get another load of wood, she’d follow you out in hopes that you were going somewhere. She was my walking companion. If I went for a walk in the bush, she’d always come with me. She was very food driven, and loved treats and only got into things that she shouldn’t have rarely.
It’s strange to wake up and not have her circling my ankles and nudging me in the back of the legs towards the kitchen. To have her supervising in the kitchen when supper was being made, and helping clean the crumbs from the floor under the kids. And so many other situations that over the years became a part of the fabric of life. It’s oddly quiet, and achingly loud at the same time.
She was and is very special to us, and we miss her terribly.
On another note, spring has fully sprung in Central Ontario. A book series that my son was reading for awhile had a farm that had such productive soil on it, they could plant a cucumber seed and tell the time by how many flowers were coming out on the vines. It brings to mind that up where we live the time is very much clocked by the flowering plants (not to mention the bugs and animals) that make their appearance in the sugar bush at this time of year. It’s always different every year as far as when the first flowers make their appearance, at least a little bit, but we, like many other places too, notice the first flowers to pop up as a sign that Spring surely cannot be far off.
The crocus, the Snow Drops, the Carolina Spring Beauties, the leeks (ramps), the Trout lilies, the Blood Root, the Trilliums, the False Solomon’s seal, the Daffodils, Tulips, Dandelions, etc. All in succession and in some cases overlapping as Spring progresses.
Same with the trees; The Pussy Willows are always the first things I notice driving along the country roads, and the general coloration of stems becomes more vibrant the closer to Spring you get. The Red Berried Elders, Honeysuckles, the Poplars, the Maples and finally the Basswoods, Lilacs, etc. So many transitions, so many beautifully ephemeral appearances. All indicators of a seasonal shift!
Of course, up here, with the coming of more flowering plants and trees, there are more bugs. The Dog Ticks are out in full force and are appearing often. The black flies have only come out a little bit so far as we have been in a bit of a cool bubble here, but with the warmer weather in the forecast, they will surely show their faces – and as Spring progresses to summer we see the progression of flies too – Black flies, Mosquitos, Ticks, Deer Flies, Horseflies, no-see-ums, and they all persist well into the mid-late July – if the heat becomes a bit intense then we get a bit of reprieve but again we notice.
It’s another cycle of life and one we pay attention to – and we ought to because they too play a role in the natural cycles of our Earth, and as a collective whole that we are a part of destruction of one, eventually destroys it all. I will say, it is nice to head to the cities sometimes where the number of bug encounters is significantly less, but for us up here living amongst the trees the majority of the time it is worth it to endure for the sheer beauty in these cycles of life and death – to be enveloped with the connection to nature, that for so many people is severed.
I love a good philosophical deep dive, but I think I’ll just leave it at that for now. There is more news to report about the coming summer market, and new equipment for the shack etc. So check back in a few weeks for that.
For now, enjoy the warmth of Spring and Summer and all the beauty it holds. Prepare for another record breaking El Nino! It is going to be HOT! Stay safe and cool!
