Moving again! Seemed even fewer people accepted dogs. The few that did accept dogs, I wouldn't bring my dog into. Fortunately, I had no set time frame for moving - Justin was buying Sharon's house and Sharon was moving to the basement apartment. I had the luxury of looking around for the perfect apartment.
Finally, I called about one apartment in an area I loved - our old stompin' grounds. John answered my question about dogs hesitantly. "Well, I love dogs and care for my son's while he's at work. But the older couple upstairs have had problems with neighbourhood dogs and they just don't want to have them in the building. These tenants have been with me for years, and I'd hate to upset them". He told me to call back in a week or two. I continued looking and when I didn't find anything suitable, I called John back. He asked to meet Sharon and Neea-Kha. Cautious fellow, he wasn't taking any chances. He and his wife came by next day and, again, Nee laid quietly in the middle of Sharon's livingroom, getting up for a pet occasionally. Whenever she laid down like this, she just excuded such a calmness - just calm and quiet, not sleeping, eyes alert. This, along with Sharon's glowing reference for us, convinced John and Norma that we would be good tenants. As usual, I rented the apartment for two weeks prior to moving. Sharon was out of the province again and her brother and son moved our furniture. Then we drove Nee to our new home. By this time, she was an old pro at moving and just sat in the car, calmly looking around. Didn't even get excited when we passed our old neighbourhood. This was going to be a wonderful environment for me and Neea-Kha -- ground floor apartment across from the river, two huge walking fields next to us, large front and back yards - no fences, but trees in front where Nee could wander the yard on her long rope, walking trails just up the street and around the bend, balcony for us to sit out -- Nee loved to be out in the winter! We met the neighbours - the "older" couple upstairs - Len and Marg, were immediately impressed with Nee's "calmness" (she did have them fooled for a while).
First evening walk in our old neighbourhood, quite a distance from our new apartment: Neea-Kha stopped at each house of our previous neighbours - smelled the plants (most of which had come from our house when we moved), neighbours came out and were greeted with huge kisses, jumping, such excitement (from Nee, not me!). They were so happy to see us too -- Nee had always been a community ambassador, spreading cheer and good humour wherever we were. Of course, the standard joke was "who's walking who?" The one place she would not walk by was our previous house. When we got up to it, she made a beeline right across the other side of the road. dragging me along behind her. I tried to coax her back, but she wouldn't budge. She absolutely didn't want to go by that house. On the way back from our walk, we went through a park, up a hill to the walking trail that was so familiar to us. It took a while to get through the trail 'cause that little girl had to stop and sniff every blade of grass and every stone along the path! Coming out of the park were two thick, upright poles to prevent motor vehicles from entering - just about waist high for me. Nee spotted a squirrel up ahead; I was just meandering, enjoying nature when suddenly, the leash was jerked out of my hand. My momentum propelled me forward until I came to a full stop right on top of one pole. Oh, the pain! I thought my stomach had burst. However, I couldn't stop to inspect for damage 'cause my dog was now loose and running full steam ahead to where the squirrel sat chattering at her. I hollered louder than I ever had and that, along with the fact that the leash was caught around her paw - the hard handle hitting her in the rear with each bounce, brought Nee to a full stop. I just kept yelling until I caught up to her; I'm sure the pain, along with the fear made me yell so loud. I was really angry with her and told her so -- I gave her a bigger lecture than I usually did, all the way home. Usually when I lectured her, she'd just give me the look that said "are you quite finished yet?" This time, she kept her eyes down and we walked home (well, I staggered), no more excitement for tonight, thank you very much!
Over the weeks, we settled in nicely. Nee got lots of attention from all the other tenants in the building and neighbours from all over the district. I had put her on the heavy-duty medication for her joints months before, and she was walking and running and jumping like a pup again. She was eight when we moved here and had the energy of a 2 year old. Evenings and weekends were filled with long walks, runs, hikes down a steep hill to the river; she loved to wallow in the muddy shoreline and roll in the dead fish scattered around the area. Smelly - back home to get hosed down. To get down the hill to the river, we had to climb up a very steep hill first. I did not have the spring in my step that Nee did, so she'd run to the top of the hill, where she'd stand strong and sturdy and allow me to pull myself up with her leash.