ruger in the streets of montreal

i am at the beginning of an adventure; it started in montreal last wednesday, has seen me flit through ottawa, arnprior (or rhoddy's bay more specifically), and kingston. this weekend i will head to northern ontario (which is not really that far north, but is considered such by southern ontario), before hopping on a plane to firenze, italy for 3 1/2 weeks. my time in italy will include a conference, a meeting, and about 9 days of cycling. it might not be difficult to figure out which part i'm most excited for...

coming to kingston was prompted both by a visit with my family, and by my plan to leave my dog with the family while i'm overseas. traveling with ruger means that he too visited montreal, ottawa, and so on. i have been many places with ruger, but he is not really a city dog. crowds make him nervous, and he doesn't speak french very well. so, it is with pleasure and amazement that i report how successful our montreal adventure was.

first, my friend and i found an amazing little b&b to stay in that allowed me to have ruger (= no tent)! the alacocque b&b is wonderfully located on rue st. urbaine, only about 6 blocks from the heart of old montreal. it's surrounded by great restaurants, and sits about 3 blocks from parc mont royal. we had a full apartment with 2 bedrooms, a full kitchen, a fenced in back yard, and a living room. i will stay there again and encourage you to consider it for your next visit too.

next, it seems that montreal is full of dog-lovers! i am biased, but ruger is a beautiful dog who often draws attention from passersby. that said, i have never seen the likes of the responses he received in montreal. people would stop and watch him walk by. people would cross the street to pet him. people talked to, and about ruger. interestingly, people would often pay very close attention to him without ever saying a word to me. this practice taught me something about silent admiration.

when you travel with a dog, you see a place through different eyes; you also adjust your plans to suit the dog. we spent more time than we might otherwise have in parc mont royal, but that was perfect. we ate on dog-friendly patios, including at a delicious vegetarian restaurant called chuchai. it's on rue st. denis, and offers a full menu of vegetarian dishes with different faux meats (i.e., vegetarian duck, vegetarian shrimp). i would typically not go out of my way for such fare; if i wanted to eat duck, i would. that said, we ordered a "duck" dish and it was outstanding! instead of going out at night, we cavorted with some of my montreal friends in the cozy of the fenced in back yard at our b&b.

so, while i'm not necessarily contemplating a life of traveling with a canine sidekick, i will say that it's an adventure i'll be willing to undertake again.