My Work at the Bed and Breakfast - Journal Entry One

Bill Richardson, a Vancouver writer and radio broadcaster who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting , only because he lived, for a while, in the apartment building where my son and daughter in law live, wrote a book called the Bachelor Brothers' Bed & Breakfast Pillow Book, which I loved. Now I work in a small bed and breakfast and I can see from where he drew his inspiration. I have decided to journal some of my experiences, keeping in mind the privacy of our guests and the B&B owner.

So here is my first journal entry.

Bed and Breakfast Journal

July 13 2025

Cat astrophe

One of the ‘jobs’ I do at the Bed and Breakfast is taking the dog, Caelte, to the beach on the weekend. Even though, Caelte is a corgi shaped dog - a slightly overweight Scottish Terrier, she loves to swim. The minute she sees the ocean, she wades in, her little legs propel her through the water and she turns her head from side to side, looking for her stick, even if I haven’t yet thrown it.

Normally, Caelte doesn’t like other dogs, especially smaller dogs, who she sees as prey! I have her on a ‘short leash’, literally. But, when she’s at the beach swimming, she is totally focused and only reacts to the other dogs if they come over and do the ‘butt sniff’, which she tolerates for about forty seconds before responding with a sharp bark. That usually sends them away and she refocuses on her stick retrieval duties, happy as can be. Her whole body shaking when she returns to shore, tail wagging and big mouth grinning. Her grin is especially noticeable because Caelte’s mouth looks like it belongs to an alligator, all the better to harass those small dogs!

This Saturday, we left the yard, her on her leash and me holding tight and letting her know in a conversational tone that we were going to the beach. This is my motivational speech, meant to keep her moving along, but it seldom works.

The cat, Loeke, who also lives at the Bed and Breakfast, jumped up on the gate, and then landed on the sidewalk behind us, intent on accompanying us. This just wouldn’t work. He likes to meander half a block behind us, which is fine if we are going around the block, with no major roads to cross, but could prove catastrophic on our longer walk to the beach. So I had no choice but to turn around and reach down to grab the cat with my one free arm, hoping he wouldn’t dodge my embrace. That was almost catastrophic as he immediately sunk his claws into my arm and his sharp teeth into my middle finger!

On entering the yard, I dropped the leash, unhinged the cat’s mouth, and held him tight in both arms until I made it up the stairs to the locked door. I placed him on a chair close to the door, pinning him on the cushion with one hand, while I wielded the key with the other and opened the door.

Then I grabbed Loeke with both hands and again he sunk his claws into my arm, but not for long as I flung him inside, closed and locked the door. Phew! Now Caelte and I could begin again - another motivational speech from me and lots of meandering from her, and we made it to the beach where she swam like the short legged wonder she is.