THE BAD AND THE GOOD

A week ago Friday I was up and dressed early. The weather was perfect for the planned 3 hour journey (Like Nautikos, I love to drive) and I was happily looking forward to the visit with dear friends; there would be fun conversation and a delicious Thanksgiving meal. Responsibilities first, of course, so I leashed the doggies and we went out for our morning walk. Thirty minutes later all hell broke loose!

We were in my driveway at the bottom of my hill, both my boys still on their long leashes, when the neighbour’s 3 mongrels came tearing out of the bush – not a bark, no sound at all – and attacked!!

I won’t go into all the gory details, except to tell you that it took both that idiot (the neighbour) and me a good half hour to separate the 5 animals. We would get two apart, be hanging on, and another two would start again. It was pure bedlam with dogs, leashes, bushes and trees and ME all tangled up, teeth gnashing, growling, pulling....not one of them weighs less than 100 pounds ...and I was so furious that I came close to letting the animals fight it out while I seriously hurt their owner!

Instead of the wonderful time I had been anticipating, I ended up, once again, at the vet’s office, first with Grump, then with Smooch. All the dogs will survive, but my boys (and his too) are in pain and on medication AGAIN, it cost me another 700$ I don’t have (Thank Heavens for my son, Bow) and that b_stard neighbour’s excuse for his dogs being loose was that I wasn’t usually outside so early. I was on my own property, right? It doesn’t matter WHAT time I am out!! As for the authorities? They repeated the advice to install a fence.

By evening we were all limping badly. I had hurt my knee in the fracas, and Helen used my office chair to wheel me to bed because I could no longer put weight on the left leg. The right one was badly scratched too, but was endurable. Now, a week later, the doggies are still on medication and have to be kept indoors for fear of infecting their open wounds, and I’m still taking pain killers, although the swelling has thankfully gone down and I can walk decently again. The disappointment in having to cancel the day with my friends was nearly as bad as anything else that happened that day.

On the up side, a lady, for whom I had made a job referral some months ago, contacted me last Thursday, wondering if I would be willing to work with her. The Company (who did hire her) had a mess in the accounting department and she needed help to get it back on track. I was quick to accept – the money situation has become dire – and am now into the getting up and dressed and off to the rat race by 7 AM each morning. We’ve been putting in long days, so I return home quite late and will be, in fact, working today (Saturday) also. This may, or may not, turn into fulltime employment, but both she and I are hoping for the best. In the meantime, I am grateful, both for the income and the fact that Helen is here for the doggies.

I’m slowly getting used to the hustle again. I think the hardest thing is having to get dressed in the morning – I was enjoying being part of the jammie brigade. My writing is suffering, what with the travel, the work, and the twice-daily cleansing of both my doggies’ wounds; I still need to adapt, especially in organising my time, something I’ve never been much good at anyway.

Speaking of which – I need to get ready, so will wish you a belated Happy Canadian Thanksgiving, wish you a great weekend, and am sending y’all a big SMILE!!

Luv from the Bush in Quebec.