Suzanne Diamond

My Story

Up Close and Personal

I am a dog owner.

I am a wife.

I am a mom.

I am a business owner.

All of these things happened because of my story and all those stories made me who I am today.

I grew up in Muskoka at a summer resort.  My parents owned the resort and we had employees and I worked harder than all of them.  At an early age I worked 16 hour days from May 24 to Thanksgiving in October (Canada Thanksgiving!).  When I did get time off, I went to someone’s house to water ski as much as possible.

​At age 14 I wanted a stereo.   My dad, an entrepreneur, said that I could earn the money to buy one myself (I didn’t get paid for my work at the resort).  I didn’t understand this as I worked my butt off for them but all the same, I opened a bait and tackle shop, Minnow Inn.  I ran that business on my own and bought my stereo within weeks of opening it.  It was very successful as it was right on the water on the lodge property.

​A year or two later, I smartened up and realized that I was the one creating the shift schedules for all the employees at the lodge. I put myself on that schedule and gave myself two days off a week.  I also convinced my dad I needed a pay cheque.  

​It was a great upbringing.  I wish I could have given my kids the same kind of life.  I worked hard but I played hard.  I met some amazing people and I learned how to deal with some not so amazing people.  

​In the winters, I snowmobiled with friends and shovelled a lot of snow.  I will mention that we did have a dog growing up, a golden retriever.  I did not like that dog and have several scars on my hands from that dog.  I do not dwell on it but to this day my first reaction to golden retrievers is to shy away.​

Growing up in the “sticks” as my city friends called it, I didn’t really know that there was a whole world outside of my favourite lake and my favourite forest.  Yes, we would go to the city to visit family or to California to visit my grandmother but the rest of the world was a fleeting thought to me.  As long as I had my lake and forest, we were good.

​Well, this was not OK for my parents who quickly realized that I may just turn out to be Jane, Tarzan’s wife, and put me on a plane, and sent me backpacking in Europe for six months.  The best part is that I paid for most of it from what I didn’t spend from Minnow Inn and hours at the lodge.

​I travelled through 15 countries and was in awe with the world.  Seeing things I still talk about this day.  I was only 19 and had a crash course on history, culture and street smarts.  I came home two days before Christmas.  This was in the 90’s and there wasn’t cell phones back then.  I would call once a week to check in and every so often I would forget and my mom would track me down by calling the hotel i was staying in, often in the middle of the night, because of the time difference.

​I came home and worked for six months before heading to Carleton University in Ottawa,  where I graduated with my BA in Law.  From there it was a series of jobs I didn’t like and then back to school.  Eventually I ended up with an Alternative Dispute Resolution Certificate from York University and my Law Clerk from Algonquin College and working at a law firm in Toronto where I was living with my boyfriend.  That boyfriend turned into my husband and we had three kids, a boy and twin girls.  This part of my journey wasn’t the best years and when the kids were very young I left.

​I again went back to school while starting from less than scratch.  This is where my life brightened up and has been getting brighter and brighter as each year that passes.  I attended Durham College and got my Paralegal Certificate and my Law Society License to practice.  This is also where I met Prince Charming, aka Mike.  We were in the same discipline at school and he is now my husband.

​After we finished school, we opened our own firm.  Soon after my husband discovered private practice wasn’t for him and is now part of the corporate workforce and I have the firm myself.  I love having my own practice and my own hours.  This business allowed us to build our life back up and have a beautiful home and lots of fun!  

​Our business is run from our home as most everything is done virtually.  So, naturally, I started considering getting a dog to keep me company while I worked but most of all, we wanted to share our hiking and camping experiences with a dog.  Although I ended up in Durham Region, I can still tell you where the closest forest and lakes are.

​It took several years for me to agree to getting a dog as I was still quite scared of them.  We had attempted at adopting a dog but that went very wrong, very fast and almost sealed the deal of not getting a dog at all.

​Then one day an ad popped up on my phone of this cute puppy, a red fox lab.  I fell in love.  We had seen puppy after puppy and different dogs to adopt and none of them called to me, except this one.  Her name is Maze and she is the sweetest, most gentle, most princess of a dog you will ever meet and I love her to death.

​My husband still jokes with me, as he will say, just ask her if she likes dogs.  I will say, “generally, no, but I love our dogs”.

​When Maze was about two years old, my girlfriend, Karen, said she would really like a dog and wanted a dog from the same breeder.  She put her name on the list in January 2021 and she came home with Nala in November 2021.  We couldn’t believe how long she had to wait for a puppy so in October, we added ourselves to the waiting list with the thought that in a year we would have the option of getting a second red fox lab dog.  Little did we know.

​During the excitement of Karen getting Nala, Karen sent us a picture of the litter.  There were red and black labs as mom was a red lab and dad was a black lab.  Nala is a darker red than Maze.  In that picture along with Ms. Yellow (Nala) was this cute black lab, Ms. Pink.  Mike had commented about how cute she was and really liked her.  They were all spoken for so we didn’t give it another thought.  A few weeks later Mike said that if he ever got a black lab he would name her Nyx, after the Goddess of Darkness. 

​In December, the breeder reached out to us and told us that the person who put a deposit on Ms. Pink backed out and if we wanted a black lab.  We were stunned, excited, and hesitant.  You see, this was two weeks before Christmas and we were heading to Myrtle Beach on December 26th for a week.  But every time we found a reason not to get her, fate was knocking on the door with a reason to get her.  It was Christmas and she had no home, Maze was her actual aunt and Karen had her real sister.  And how do you say no to that cute adorable face?

​Our kids came home from school the day we said yes to a collar in the  Christmas tree with a name tag that said Nyx on it.  They were more shocked than any of us as we had not even discussed getting another dog.

​We sorted out all the dog sitting and house sitting, went on our vacation and came home to our new addition to our family and we have enjoyed every minute of it.  Nyx is the craziest, funniest dog you have ever met.  She gets so excited, she literally spins in circles, when she gets bored she will try to balance a bone on Maze’s back and she thinks every minute of every day is the best thing ever.  How do you not fall in love?

Now armed with two dogs that I adore and wanting to take them everywhere, I was finding it challenging to figure out where I could take them and what we could do.  Hiking was a no brainer but we were starting to get more and more creative.  We have been doing some fun things with the fur babies and wanted to share our adventures, and a blog was born.