The rain that had been predicted for this weekend held off long enough for the warmer temperatures to offer us an opportunity to do some gardening.

This was the first bit of gardening that we’ve done for the year and it consisted of a clean up of dead leaves and grasses.

Everyone was having a great time (the wine on the windowsill helped):

Until The Girl found this:

After years of little niggly problems costing tons of money to fix and then recurring, I finally had enough. From getting rear-ended the second day after I got the car, to having my emblems stolen, to parts wearing out excessively fast (and only being able to purchase them from a dealership), I said, “enough”.

The recession makes buying something like a new car quite a dream. I chose a sage green 2009 Subaru Forester, traded in the jalopy, switched plates, and won’t look back.

I will not buy another BMW.

As The Vapors sang:

I’m turning Japanese
I think I’m turning Japanese
I really think so
Turning Japanese
I think I’m turning Japanese
I really think so
I’m turning Japanese
I think I’m turning Japanese
I really think so
Turning Japanese
I think I’m turning Japanese
I really think so

Elvis Presley in Suspicious Minds:

Why can’t you see
What you’re doing to me
When you don’t believe a word I say?

We can’t go on together
With suspicious minds
And we can’t build our dreams
On suspicious minds

Ameloblast and Roxy in our kitchen after a messy training session. Actually it was painful (for me) more than messy because I was trying to teach Roxy how to take treats gently:

Roxy is a 2 year old mixed dog that we rescued from the Toronto Humane Society a couple of weeks ago. The teenager who surrendered her to the shelter because he could not afford food for her said that she’s an Azores Cattle Dog. If she does have some of the Azores islands in her those genes are quite diluted. She hardly resembles a purebred ACD.

She has a docked tail and poorly cropped ears. A lip injury along with some scabs along one thigh were suggestive that she had been in a fight just prior to being surrendered.

She and Ameloblast are slowly becoming tolerant of each other and some day soon I’m sure they will become good friends.

Adopting a dog from the SPCA is not as easy as it used to be. If you have never adopted a dog from a shelter it’s definitely not as easy as you might think. The interview that potential adopters are put through can be quite stressful. An extensive questionnaire must be completed and then a meet and greet is set up between you and the dog. If everything goes well there, anyone else who is going to be in close contact with the dog at home must be brought to the shelter as well. This includes other dogs.

Shaz, a professional dog trainer, was our interviewer at the shelter. Thanks to him we were made aware of potential issues between Roxy and Ameloblast and once we brought her home we were able to watch and react to problems before they became issues.

As with any animal that you rescue, you don’t know what sort of life they really have had and you probably do not want to know. All that you do need to know is that a dog like Roxy just wants to have a home that they can call theirs, they want to be loved, to be fed, and to be entertained. Given all of this, they will become your forever friend and you will have saved one soul from a sad ending.

None of us ever asked to be born to this world. Once here, though, we just want to live a life that is happy, positive, and fulfilling. Dogs feel no differently. Anyone who has owned a four-legged pet knows this.

As of today, our windows are still intact along with our lives and the rest of the house. Much has happened over the months since that night with Y on the front porch. Y and B’s house went up for sale shortly after all of this. It is still for sale, much to B’s frustration but not to Y’s. Y loves living in the area and their girls have a well-established social life here now.

Often when The Girl was out walking, B just happened to be either driving by in her car or sitting in wait. B would then resort to either flooring the accelerator past The Girl, or following her slowly a short distance behind — all intimidation tactics. We debated reporting her activity to the police, but didn’t know if B’s behavior was illegal. We decided to play things by ear a little longer. Most of Y and B’s neighbours have commented at one time or another about her strange behavior with her driving her car up and down the street pointlessly. They also wonder why she stops at the top of our street for a minute or two at a time and just looks to the end of it — looks to our house. Through our windows we would often see her zipping around in front of our house checking our property out.

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My wife did manage to calm down before the night was through. Although thoughts of murder and vandalism ran through her head, she overcame and tried to put the whole incident behind her. We agreed that we would have nothing to do with Y and B in the future.

It was around lunch time a couple of days later that my wife remembered that B had wanted all of us to get together to discuss the situation and for her to call to set that up. My wife had calmed down enough to feel that she could have a rational, intelligible conversation at this point.

She dialed their number.

Y answered, “Hello?”

“Can I speak to B?”

B came on the phone, “Hello?”

“This is The Girl…”

“Yes, I’m ready to talk to you now,” B said. “I…”

“No! You’re done talking. You’re gonna listen now!”

“You…”

“Shut up and listen! Who the fuck do you think you are? How dare you come over to my place and I find you alone with my husband and you’re the one accusing me of cheating with yours. I don’t want to have anything to do with you. Forget where we live, who we are, that we were ever friends!” My wife hung up.

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