Flora & Fauna Archives - Ryan McLaughlin

The bugs are back in town

The bugs are returning. After a couple months with a decrease in the number of insect invaders in our home, the warmer weather lately is bringing them back. There are a lot of things that living on a tropical(ish) island forces you to get used to. Things your typical Canadian just never really has to …

March 5, 2014

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Big-time Button

Just got a message via Flickr that a photo I took a couple weeks back of Button made it to Purina’s Pet Charts – a collection of pet stories, pictures and videos. She’s currently ranked #2 – help me get her to No. #1! Vote for the photo here: http://petcharts.purina.com/Default.aspx?day=2009-4-13 UPDATE 04/14: Button’s picture hit …

April 13, 2009

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Pupdate: Some new photos

Just a quickie to say that Button is doing great. I’ve started teaching her some basic commands, and she’s a quick study. She’s got sit, stay, come here, lie down, no and ok figured out. Today I’ll work on teaching her “roll over” and “spin”. It amazes me how easy goldens are to train – …

April 6, 2009

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Pupdate: Button the Brave

As mentioned, we recently got a new puppy named Button. Now having had a few days to get to know our newest family member, it’s neat to see her personality shining through. Addie was the first time I ever raised a puppy, and so everything was new. I had no way of knowing what was …

March 22, 2009

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Addie’s Ashes – cremating our dog in China

It’s been a handful of days now, and both Maggie and I are coming to terms with Addie’s death. I still expect her to be there, wagging her tail, when we open the front door; and I still look for her underfoot when I get up from the sofa. But time is a cool leveler, …

January 6, 2009

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Addie Update #2: The Youth in Asia Debate

A couple of days ago I drew up a calendar on a whiteboard Maggie uses to keep track of her yoga clients. The calendar shows the dates from December 23 (the day before we found out Addie was suffering from aflatoxicity) to January 4th (one day after the vet said she would be lucky to …

December 31, 2008

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US-made Optima dog food in China may have killed my dog

In what’s poised to be the absolute worst Christmas ever, there is an excellent chance my dog – my awesome, beautiful, wonderful, fantastic dog – is going to die. After posting the other day about the possibility of her having come into contact with aflatoxin contaminated Optima dog food, a visit to the vet yesterday …

December 25, 2008

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Feeding your dog Optima in China? Stop.

The last two days we’ve been dealing with a bit of a scare. We got a call from our pet shop asking us if we’d seen the news. Optima – the decent-quality, American-made dog food we’ve always fed our pup – was issuing a major recall because contaminants had been found in it. Apparently since …

December 23, 2008

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Karmatic Moment of the Week: Snake Rescue

I got an early phone call from my friend and neighbour Kevin today. It’s not odd that he called, he often calls, but it did seem weird it was only 9 a.m. “Ryan, can you come outside for a minute, I need a hand.” In slippers and pajamas I wander out into the apartment building’s …

November 17, 2008

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Who stopped the rain?

Suzhou is green. Hell, it’s a garden city. And a great part about it, is it stays green all year round. It makes the city a nice place to look at no matter what time of year you come here. The tradeoff is that it rains non-stop. We go from rainy season to typhoon season …

July 8, 2008

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Puppy Power in the PRC Part II

Well, it’s the end of day three with the puppy and I dare say there’s not a place she hasn’t marked with a little bit of puppy love. The physics of a puppy astound me. I swear more comes out of her than goes in. But for every ounce of patience she takes from me, …

February 19, 2008

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Puppy Power in the PRC

It’s somewhat amazing how quickly a relatively calm and orderly life can be turned into a non-stop “no!” shouting, pee cleaning, slobber and hair covered existence. We got a puppy! Maggie and I have long talked about getting a dog, and in the end always had something looming that prevented us (mostly financial or geographical). …

February 18, 2008

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