Meet Babas Bohème...our MIRA puppy.

2 weeks ago today, Mark and I picked up our puppy, Babas Bohème, from the MIRA foundation's training center located about 45mins east of Montreal. We will be fostering this cutie for a year. And yes, I know, it will be extremely hard saying goodbye to her after 12 months, but this is our way of giving back. 


MIRA logo below.

  

A few fast facts about the foundation. For more info click HERE.

Founder:  Founded in Quebec, Canada by Éric St-Pierre in 1981.

Mission: Trains and provides dogs (free of charge) for individuals with visual and motor disabilities, and children with disorders such as autism.  

Breed: "Labernese" : half Labrador / half Bernese Mountaing dog.

Our job as foster-parents: Socialize her and teach her basic discipline.  

Professional training is done by MIRA experts.

 

We call her Babas Bohème. 

She was born the 25th of July.

The pics above are of Day 1: (left) The day she left the training center for the first time, she fit inside a medium-sized basket. (right) First steps into our studio. She felt at home instantly!

Babas: (Unofficial name) Spanish for drool. 

Bohème: (Official MIRA name) a. French for bohemian. 

b. A person (as a writer or an artist) living an unconventional life usually in a colony with others. (According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary). 

She's a big-fluffy puppy full of teething energy! 


We took her apple-picking last week and she loved it.  
She was seduced by a plethora of sweet smells. 
Although, I did find it curious that she didn't try to eat or play with the apples, 
only the grass, leaves, and branches.

Perhaps this explains why she's infatuated with my green babies at home.  
She barks at them and then eats their leaves...hmmm.
I better put a stop to this soon.

Mark and I have been looking for puppy toys, 
but there are very silly things out there . . . 
not good enough for our puppy! 


And so, 
I decided to make her a couple of Charles and Ray Eames inspired birds 
out of old fabrics. 
The solid red bird was created out of an old pair of childhood winter tights. 

The patterned bird was created from a piece of 1970s curtains that once adorned my grandmother's house in Mexico.  I loved these curtains growing up! 

What are they stuffed with, you wonder? With several pairs of Mark's old socks and my old Victoria Secret's bra "stuffers" from those teenage years. (I have no idea why I saved these!)

She plays with them, tries to kill them (should I be encouraging this behavior?), sleeps on them, etc. It's extremely rewarding witnessing such glee!  

NOTE: I do have to stitch them every now and then.  Those baby teeth are fierce!