“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: RORY AIN’T NO HOWLING WOLF: HE HAS A MISSION: The Puppy Potty Saga Continues

RORY AIN’T NO HOWLING WOLF: HE HAS A MISSION: The Puppy Potty Saga Continues

Since we were just discussing Kurt Cobain let me continue this musical interface by stating I am no Howling Wolf, that legendary blues singer, nor a wolf with rabies.

If I bark up a storm by the sliding door leading to the backyard Bob and Fay initially thought I saw a squirrel and am clamouring to get to it. That’s true I bark in preparation for a squirrel attack but this barking somehow is rewarded with a treat if I do my “business outside”. It also works with a gentle bark. I am making THE CONNECTION finally. Puppy owners please realize puppy potty training is a mutual affair. You train me. I train you. I am not “howling” to satisfy a primitive instinct…at least this time. Although face it potty training is rather instinctual. You gotta go. You gotta go. The trick is location. Location. Location!

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: DYLAN THE WESTIE, RORY AND KURT KOBAIN: Smelling Like Puppy Spirit”

DYLAN THE WESTIE, RORY AND KURT KOBAIN: Smelling Like Puppy Spirit”

Bob and Fay are experiencing difficulties in remembering me, Dylan the Westie, as a pup. I can’t remember much but watching Rory from here in the Land Beyond some memories are flooding back.

We might want to refer to music now. Rory loves jazz. He likes to listen to jazz before his naps. I preferred classical and absolutely loved “Saturday Afternoon at the Opera” on CBC. I never liked that screeching, shouting, yelling cacophony of rock n roll. Beastie Boys drove me mad and if less sophisticated I would have howled to drown their racket out.

Bob did like a Nirvana song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” which was was barely acceptable to me. If you observe Rory he is go go go. Running around the backyard, snowplowing, puppy twirls, chewing, giving wet kisses and playing with his toys. Then suddenly he is out of gas and groggy which is code for nap time. After his nap, a trip outside for his “business” and perhaps a nibble or two and a slurp of water his energy kicks in until it is nap time. Remembering the Kurt Cobain song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” it is incumbent on me to say Rory “Smells Like Puppy Spirit”.

RKS CANADIAN Wine: Reif Estate’s 2020 Niagara River Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve

 Ontario Cabernet Franc offers wine drinkers excellent results but with Ontario Cabernet Sauvignon it is “Brave New World”. It seldom impresses.

What about the REIF Estate 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve from Ontario’s Niagara River appellation?

Aroma: Blueberry, black cherry, licorice and charcoal.

Palate: Diffuse and moderate tannins. The intriguing aromas do not migrate to the palate in great intensity. Do we politely call this a “cold climate” Cabernet Sauvignon instead of labelling it weak kneed?

Personality: I am a Niagara Cabernet Sauvignon. I am lean and tough if you prefer that style.

Food Match: The label suggests a roasted leg of lamb but much depends on how that leg is seasoned. I think a duck roasted with Port, chicken broth, celery, carrots and freshly squeezed orange juice might work well.

Cellarbility: Some vague hope the wine might improve into 2029 .

Price: $35 CDN. You can fare much better with a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon at $25.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine Rating: 84/100.Matt Steeves 93.

(Reif Estate Winery 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, VQA Niagara River, Reif Winery, Niagara-on-the-Lake, 750 mL,13.5%).

RKS Literature: Pornography for the Proles (George Orwell)

“There was a whole chain of separate departments dealing with proletarian literature, music, drama and entertainment generally. Here were produced rubbishy newspapers containing almost nothing but sport, crime, astrology, sensational five cent novelettes, films oozing with sex, and sentimental songs which were composed entirely by mechanical means on a special kind of kaleidoscope known as a versificator. There was even a whole subsection-Pornosec, it was called in Newspeak-engaged in producing the lowest kind of pornography, which was sent out in sealed packets and which no Party member, other those that worked on it, was permitted to look at.”

George Orwell, “1984”, 1949.

RKS CANADIAN WINE: Akimbo but Not Forgotten Viewpointe 2012 Ontario Cabernet Franc

I am uncertain if this Viewpointe Estate Winery 2012 Cabernet Franc from Ontario’s Lake Erie North Shore was a sample provided by the winery or I purchased it at a hurried trip to the winery some years ago. It was at the low far bottom rack of the wine cellar and was “discovered” in a reorganization attempt.  I did have a label indicating consume in 2024 so I suppose I wasn’t that far off opening it on 9December2025. I must have found some quality in the wine that justified some ageing bearing in mind I stretch drink dates dates beyond my initial cellarbility for experimentation purposes and for a $20 purchase price the financial risk is minimal.

Aroma: Big blackberry, blueberry, cassis, dark chocolate with a subtle vanilla core. Some percolated coffee is creeping in. Coffee aromas in red wine, according to my experience, are indicative of a wine on the decline.

Palate: Smooth with relaxed tannins. Full of black fruit. Medium length somewhat juicy finish. Stable acids.

Personality: I represent Ontario’s great red wine strength, Cabernet Franc. Quite an achievement I say flourishing after 13 years in the bottle.

Original Purchase Price: $20 CDN.

RKS CANADIAN Wine Rating: 88/100.

(Viewpointe Estate Winery, Cabernet Franc 2012 VQA Lake Erie North Shore, Viewpointe Estate Winery, Harrow, Ontario, 750 mL, 14%).

RKS Literature: Evil Children Burning a Woman Wrapping Up Sausages in a Poster of Big Brother

‘Did I ever tell you old boy,’ he said, chuckling round the stem of his pipe,’ about the time those two nippers of mine set fire to the old market woman’s skirt because they saw her wrapping up sausages in a poster of B.B.? Sneaked up behind her and set fire to it with a box of matches. But keen as mustard! That’s first rate training they give them in the Spies nowadays-better than in my day, even. What d’ you think’s the latest thing they’ve served them out with? Ear trumpets for listening through keyholes! My little girl brought one home the other night-tried it out on our sitting room door,  and reckoned she could hear twice as much as with her ear to the hole.”

George Orwell, “1984”, 1949.

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: RORY GRAPPLES WITH THE CONCEPT OF A LOST PUPPYDOM

RORY GRAPPLES WITH THE CONCEPT OF A LOST PUPPYDOM

I don’t wish to split hairs here but to be lost don’t you require to have been from somewhere? As a puppy I am in essence from nowhere?

Or is the concept of lost apply to a puppy who has such a minimal foundation in life and morals being lost in puppydom is akin to being from nowhere?

My puppydom is confusing particularly all these rules of behavior and not to flog a dead horse (bad choice of words) doing my “business” is so confusing. Being praised and “treated” and scolded the next for the same acts. I’ll work it out. Even after Bob scolds me for doing my business in the wrong place he looks me in the eye and tells me I’m smarter than that. I am not sure what that means but his tone is reassuring.

RKS Literature: Control of Society Through Falsification/Rectification (George Orwell)

“This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs-to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance. Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain.”

George Orwell, “1984”. 1949.

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: RORY AS A FRESH OFF THE BOAT FIREFIGHTER

RORY AS A FRESH OFF THE BOAT FIREFIGHTER

Bob and Fay’s daughter A and their grandchild J arrived at our house so J could be dropped off. Fay and J are going to the nutcracker tomorrow. Why anyone would go out to see nuts cracked is beyond me.

J loves the fireplace, so Bob lit up the fireplace for the second time since I have been in my new home. It frightened me this time with some loud pops and crackles. I was just a wee pup last time wet behind the ears, so the fire didn’t spook me then. This time it set me reeling back and frightened me and I barked up a storm after peeing on the floor in front of the fireplace. Firefighters shoot their liquid on the fire. Well, shiver me timbers I pissed in front of it and Bob and Fay were not stern with me kind of sweettalking me to calm down. I am very embarrassed. This puppydom can be intimidating.

Humans often refer to those arriving from other countries and cultures as immigrants as being Fresh off the Boat (FOB). At least they have some idea of acting within human society. I am very much FOB as I know so little about humans. I am starting from scratch so I am super duper FOB requiring the utmost patience and compassion from humans. I am no different in many respects from a newborn human but I learn much faster perhaps because my lifespan in seven times shorter than the average human’s.

RKS Literature: Children as Ungovernable Savages (George Orwell)

“With those children, he thought, that wretched woman must lead a life of terror. Another two years, and they would be watching her day and night for symptoms of unorthodoxy. Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies there were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatsoever to rebel against the discipline of the Party and everything connected with it. The songs, the processions, the banners, the hiking, the drilling with dummy rifles, the yelling of slogans, the worship of Big Brother-it was all sort of a glorious game to them.”

George Orwell, “1984”, 1949.