When we were looking for a new condo to buy we had one big consideration, we wanted a dog. Both James and I had dogs when we lived with our parents and we wanted to have one ourselves, especially now that there were two people in the household, it would be easier to take care of him if it was two of us.

We were advised to look for dogs that were given up because of health or death of their owners, and to watch out for dogs given up for behavioural issues, since we wouldn’t have time to work with the dog on those problems.

We looked for available dogs on Petfinder and liked a black lab mix called Max. He lived with a jack russel terrier and a cat, and his owner couldn’t take care of him because she had been sick. The adoption agency is called Adopt-A-Dog Save-A-Life and we sent the application on July 22nd. Almost two weeks later, we had our home visit. They do the home visit to ensure that the house is good for the dog, that there are no hazards… and that we are not freaks (we tried to hide it, haha).

After the home visit on August 5th, they called me and asked me if we would be interested in Molson. Molson was in more urgent need of “rescue” because his owner could not take care of him anymore. Also he was used to being alone, while Max was probably going to be lonely, being used to being in a house where there were other dogs and cats. Molson looked super cute on his pictures and we agreed to go visit him and potentially adopting him.

We reserved a car to go all the way to Markham, by then I was pretty convinced we were going to get him, but we still had to meet him. We went to his house and took him for a walk. Here we are when we had just met.

We totally fell in love with him (as we were expecting!). So we brought him home.

Molson is an adorable dog. He is a purebred Labrador, he will be turning eight in December and he is very well behaved. He is used to being inside, but loves to go for his walk.

He has been a little bit nervous, I think because he doesn’t know what’s going on. I think he is waiting for his previous owner to come any minute and pick him up. He got a little bit of diarrhea, probably because he is excited/nervous. But he has taken to us and gets excited to see James or me.
I am so glad we got him, I will have all this week to be with him and get him used to us and the house before starting my new job on August 17. Then he’ll stay here during the workday, but I’ll come right after work for his walk.

Here is a copy of what I wrote in January 2005, it was called “Reconnecting with old friends“. I am re-posting it because the post that gets the most hits on this blog is the one titled “What’s left of Chateau Mont Choisi” written in August 2007. Currently it has close to 30 comments. So here is what I wrote back in 2005:

I know that some people have been performing Internet searches for Institution Chateau Mont Choisi at Lausanne. I would like to reconnect with some of the girls that were in school with me, back in 1990, especially my fellow boarders at Le Bercail (that was the name of the house we lived in, since we were over 18 we had less restrictions than other girls who lived at Wellingtonia, the Chateau or the other house, the Rosemont, where the dining room was).

I’d like to post their names but I don’t think I should, because of privacy issues, so I’ll just write their first name:

Marcela, from Cali, Colombia (haven’t seen her since December 1990, when I left the school)

Veronica, from Cali, Colombia (haven’t seen her since December 1990, when I left the school)

Carmen, from Mexico City (last I knew she had moved to Monterrey and was studying at ITESM, this was probably in 1992)

Gretta, from Sweden (she was something like the housemaster at the Bercail) (haven’t seen her since December 1990)

Ana Paola, from Sao Paolo, Brazil (haven’t seen her since December 1990)

Victoria, from England (haven’t seen her since December 1990)

Penny, from Venezuela (haven’t seen her since December 1990)

Pili, from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (haven’t seen her since December 1990 I saw her at Maribel’s wedding in 1992 or 1993, December)

Montse, from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic ((haven’t seen her since December 1990 I saw her at Maribel’s wedding in 1992 or 1993, December)

Alice from Puebla, Mexico (I actually have her email address, the last time I saw her was in 2001, I think, and I also know she had a baby about 2 years ago)

Mariana and Ana (they were sisters and Mariana was one of my best friends, I know her last name and she is from Mexico City so I can probably find her easily just looking for her parents’ number)

Maribel from Mexico City (OK, I have been in touch with her, I went to her wedding and I met her twin girls, but haven’t known much about her since 2001 or so)

Marina from Mexico City (she is the one who told me that she had been to Lausanne recently -and for recently I mean probably 1998- and had seen the Chateau in very bad shape. I know she got married because my mother saw the pictures in the newspaper)

The big problem is that I have moved around so much that I have lost track of almost everyone, and it’s difficult to track me even if you Google my complete name (which almost no one knows). It would be nice to know what happened to all these girls.

So everyone if you know anyone that was at Chateau Mont Choisi in 1990, tell them to check out if they are on this list, (and remember, they probably know me as Lolina, or Maria Dolores).

UPDATE 2009: Thanks to Facebook I have somehow reconnected to Maribel, Montse and Mariana. Penny from Venezuela now lives in Australia and we were connected for a little bit. I also am “friends” (Facebook friends) with Gilda, Karla, Alicia, Eman and some other girls that were students at the same time as me. Little by little some of us have reconnected.