One More Time
Into our fifth year -- Nee's almost 13 at this time, I'm getting up there myself. John came over one day to let us all know the building had been sold. New owners want to take one of the apartments. Why did I get chills when I heard that? Perhaps because my apartment had the best layout and view of all the others - that's why. Sure enough, after days of checking out the apartments, the owners did decide to take mine. We'd have to move again. More uprooting, more goodbyes, more apartment hunting. This was the hardest move for me -- we had been here five years. I hated to move Nee once again; she adapted well to new situations but she was getting older and I worried that she might have trouble adjusting. I took extra care while apartment hunting to ensure we'd have a good environment to move to. Walking areas, yard, windows for her to look out of. It took a while but I finally found the apartment. It was a duplex -- one quiet person upstairs, us downstairs, big sunporch, large windows for Nee's viewing pleasure, smallish side yard, but we weren't doing much running around these days, wonderful landlords. Lots of young kids in the neighbourhood and a public school across the street. When the kids came out for recess and we were walking by, they'd all come running over to the fence, sticking their hands out to pet her. A teacher hovered anxiously by, waiting to grab an arm or two from the jaws of this vicious wolf (kids always asked if she was a wolf and were disappointed when I told them no, she wasn't). Two little 7 year old boys down the street from us -- set of twins, just loved Neea-Kha. Didn't matter if they were getting ready for school, going to the park - whatever, they had to run up and pet her and love her all up. She loved the attention. Wasn't crazy about their 4 year old brother who wanted to ride on her back, but she never nipped at him -- just evaded him if my eagle eye and a body block didn't stop him. The mother wasn't a big help -- thought it was quite alright if her little (solid) 4 year old rode on the back of a 14 year old dog. I stopped taking her down that way if the little boy was out, but the brothers were at our door every night to see her.
Nee loved to be out at night on the porch or in the backyard with me. I'd be sitting in my chair, Nee laying quietly beside me or just wandering in the yard; nightime -- dark -- some poor unsuspecting soul would be walking down the street - sometimes a few people together. Nee would wait until they were almost at the front of the porch or just coming up to the fence, then she'd jump up with a single huge bark and scare the living you-know-what out of them. They'd scream or yell, clutching their chests, but always laughed afterwards when I apologized sweetly on behalf of my dog. Fortunately, not too many elderly walking by at night! I must admit to getting a bit of a kick out of it myself. Sometimes on weekends, we'd be walking on the streets at midnight or 2 a.m., just to cool down or get some fresh air or because we were restless. We'd get the occasional inebriated fellow staggering down the street, stopping to chat, remarking on my beautiful dog. Nee always stood protectively, on guard but never felt threatened enough to jump at them. It didn't matter if they were drunk, or if it was a bunch of rowdy teenagers -- they were all so in awe of her beauty and just wanted to pet her and love her up. She didn't miss out on any attention for sure.
It had always been my heart's desire to spend Nee's last years with her -- not having to go out to work; 10 hours a day, 5 days a week seemed like a lot of time to be away from home these days. It was my prayer that somehow, things would work out that way. Looking at my finances didn't inspire confidence that it could possibly happen but -- God is so faithful to answer the desires of the heart. In October 2009, the company I worked at informed us that our jobs would be outsourced. We would be out of work at the end of the month. Okay Lord, I'm leaving this in your hands; I know you have a plan... Well, of course, we have to put feet to our faith so I scrambled to get my finances in order and realized that in fact, financially - this was an opportune time to start a sabbatical -- two years at the most. I'd have to budget carefully but somehow, it could be done. I wasn't consciously thinking that this might be the last year I had with my Neea-Kha but figured I'd fly by the seat of my pants for future years. And so it began. I didn't realize at the time this would be the beginning of the end.
Nee loved to be out at night on the porch or in the backyard with me. I'd be sitting in my chair, Nee laying quietly beside me or just wandering in the yard; nightime -- dark -- some poor unsuspecting soul would be walking down the street - sometimes a few people together. Nee would wait until they were almost at the front of the porch or just coming up to the fence, then she'd jump up with a single huge bark and scare the living you-know-what out of them. They'd scream or yell, clutching their chests, but always laughed afterwards when I apologized sweetly on behalf of my dog. Fortunately, not too many elderly walking by at night! I must admit to getting a bit of a kick out of it myself. Sometimes on weekends, we'd be walking on the streets at midnight or 2 a.m., just to cool down or get some fresh air or because we were restless. We'd get the occasional inebriated fellow staggering down the street, stopping to chat, remarking on my beautiful dog. Nee always stood protectively, on guard but never felt threatened enough to jump at them. It didn't matter if they were drunk, or if it was a bunch of rowdy teenagers -- they were all so in awe of her beauty and just wanted to pet her and love her up. She didn't miss out on any attention for sure.
It had always been my heart's desire to spend Nee's last years with her -- not having to go out to work; 10 hours a day, 5 days a week seemed like a lot of time to be away from home these days. It was my prayer that somehow, things would work out that way. Looking at my finances didn't inspire confidence that it could possibly happen but -- God is so faithful to answer the desires of the heart. In October 2009, the company I worked at informed us that our jobs would be outsourced. We would be out of work at the end of the month. Okay Lord, I'm leaving this in your hands; I know you have a plan... Well, of course, we have to put feet to our faith so I scrambled to get my finances in order and realized that in fact, financially - this was an opportune time to start a sabbatical -- two years at the most. I'd have to budget carefully but somehow, it could be done. I wasn't consciously thinking that this might be the last year I had with my Neea-Kha but figured I'd fly by the seat of my pants for future years. And so it began. I didn't realize at the time this would be the beginning of the end.