Raising Markus is the series where we share stories about our time raising Markus. Said to be aggressive and having gone unadopted for over a year, Raising Markus is the story of a rescued dog from Korea given a second opportunity, now in Vancouver, Canada. This series will include the lessons, joys and struggles of dog owners fumbling our way through our first adoption. The hope is that if you're considering rescuing a dog of your own, our stories are useful to you.

The past week has been such a special week for us. First, we took Markus on an extended trip to Vancouver Island - the longest trip we've done with him yet and when we got back, Markus played a special role in a wedding.

The Ring Dog

A couple of our friends got married this week and in the wedding, Markus got to play a role in the wedding as a ring bearer, or, the ring dog. It was a special time for all of us involved and we were so happy that Markus got to be a part of it.

Markus' job was pretty simple. Much like how weddings have kids assigned to carrying the ring down the aisle, Markus was given this task. You might be wondering - how does a dog manage to carry a ring down the aisle?

Well, we kept the setup pretty simple for Markus. All he had to do was wear a bandana-like getup that was made to look like he was wearing a suit. There was a clip attached to the bow tie area of the suit and the rings were placed on the clip. At that point, all Markus had to do was walk down the aisle.

At first, we were thinking maybe Markus could do it off-leash, but since it was right by the water, we didn't want to push our luck. Since I was a part of the wedding party, I couldn't take Markus up the aisle with me, so my wife ended up doing that. Markus was fine with all the rehearsals, but we weren't sure what it was going to be like on the day of because of the number of people and Markus having to walk through it.

The day came and Markus had absolutely no problems. He came straight to me, I detached the rings from the clip and he sat down. He was so good, in fact, that after taking the rings off of him, he ended up lying down in the sun for the duration of the wedding. He was great and people wanted to meet him afterwards!

It was a special moment that we were able to share with Markus and we're glad that everything went so smoothly.

The Victoria Trip

Before the wedding, we got to go on a trip with Markus. It was a trip with two stops on Vancouver Island. The first leg of the trip was in Victoria to visit some family and then we made our way north to the Nanaimo area and beyond. On the Nanaimo leg of the trip, we also visited Parksville and Qualicum Beach (where we stayed) with a few hikes and food stops in between.

While in Victoria, we had a bit of fishing scheduled and this was the first time we brought Markus onto a smaller boat. We walked with him all the way down to the docks, but when we got to the boat, he didn't exactly want to go in. We ended up having to pick up him up and carry him onto the boat. 

Markus has been on bigger ships like ferries, but this must've been the first time he was in a boat this small where you can actually feel the bumps and rocking of the waves. It took Markus a little bit of time to find his sea legs, but he eventually stood up and faced the wind as the boat was cruising through the water.

He was loving the breeze and whenever the boat wasn't moving and we were fishing, Markus would settle and lie there quietly in the sun. Markus was living his best life out there in the water on a boat!

After the stop in Victoria, we spent a few nights at an Airbnb at Qualicum Beach. It's a quiet and very nice town and we enjoyed this trip so much that we're fairly confident that we're going to be back here sooner than later. The town of Qualicum Beach had great food and even had a Farmer's Market on the Saturday.

From Qualicum Beach, we visited the Kinsol Trestle and the Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park, home of some of the oldest Douglas Firs in North America. We also visited some of the smaller towns and shops in the area like Fanny Bay for their oysters, Parksville for their shops and community parks and a cheese shop at Qualicum Beach.

Unfortunately, there were also some things that we had planned that we weren't able to do. One of these things we wanted to do was a hike that was temporarily closed because a tree had fallen over around the entrance. Whenever we visit again in the future, and we're sure we will, we'll try again with some of these things we weren't able to do.

We wrote about the trip and all the fun things that we did including the hikes and some of the things I talked about like the seafood shop and cheese shops that you can find here.

We’re so grateful for your support of The Markus Project. We mostly choose our locations through searching and word of mouth. If you know of a park, trail or location you think we should check out, please share it with us. We’d love to know!