Dear Pussy Wilks...

That's how I would always start off my letters to Mum.  I have absolutely no idea where the nickname came from... Mum used to call me Puss (I know, kind of embarrassing really).  And she was always Pussy Wilks to us kids.  I think it may have been a stuffed puppet or cartoon character from from some ancient British TV show.  I tried googling it.  But when I saw what came up - well, you can just imagine - I figured I would never find the true origin.

But I digress... Hey, isn't that what blogs that record someone's rambling thoughts are all about?

After I lost Mum it took me a long while to stop thinking "ooh... I must tell Mum!" whenever something significant or, more often than not, something not so significant, happened in my life.

One very insignificant thing happened just now that she would have loved.  I took Zoe for a lunchtime walk. We usually head for the beach or the nearest park for a good run, but as Jim isn't feeling so great today I said I'd walk her around the block.  There's the tiniest little park at the end of our road with lots of wonderful smells, and then we continued around onto the main drag here in Tsawwassen. When we reached Pets 'N Us right there on 56th Street, Zoe starting getting all excited.  She loves that store... and she is literally like a kid in a candy store!

"No, Zoe... I don't have any money. We're not going in today!"

But she sat and held her ground and just wouldn't budge.  I got some nasty looks as I started to try and drag her little butt right on past.  And I mean literally dragging her along the sidewalk... there was no way she was moving.  I ended up having to pick her up to get her to the end of the street.  I'm just glad she's not an 80lb Rottweiler!