This week Danita and I separated. Not in the relationship, marital type way but as house-sitters.
For the first time (well, at least as far as I recall) we’ve had a couple of housesits which have overlapped.
Given that we’ve been living our nomadic lifestyle for over 3 years that’s a pretty amazing result. To date we’ve managed to pretty consistently align our bookings so that we move from one place into the next without too much chaos, confusion and holes.
Until now.
So, for a few days, Danita stayed in the place at Dee Why while Sancho and I moved to Mona Vale.
It was a real gender split. The dogs in Dee Why were a couple of females and the Mona Vale one is male. A real Aussie party scenario, with the boys in one room and the girls in another (does that actually happen any more????) except that in this case we were in separate suburbs.
The prospect of being in two separate places was quite scary at first. However, it was quite pleasant in some ways.
Sancho, Harley (the new doggy subject) and I bonded nicely and after a couple of days, where none of us were initially at our best, we settled in happily to a sort of routine.
On the first night Sancho was clearly upset and went off to sulk. I eventually found him (it’s a big house), sat with him for quite a while and could tell that he was perking up. It’s amazing how someone (does a dog qualify as a ‘someone’?) who can’t speak can be so communicative – or is it our ability to listen. Another option is, I’m having myself on and am delusional – always a possibility but we’ll discount that for now.
We’d been warned that Harley has a habit of waking you up early in the morning – it wasn’t explained how he did that but I was soon to find out.
Firstly, I am so not a morning person.
When he decides it’s time to get up Harley starts to bash on the bed. I think he’s a spoodle (mix of Spaniel & Poodle) and so is quite tall. So much so that his head is at bed level. When he does his bed thumping he also sticks his nose in your face – just the thing to be woken up with – a wet doggy nose. He maintains this routine until you get up.
The first night I was here he must have been very suspicious because he didn’t start his get-up call until after 7. I was thinking the owners had misled us and he wasn’t such an early riser after all – got that wrong – didn’t I.
The first morning wasn’t too bad. Up at a reasonably sensible hour and then a walk around the local neighbourhood, which is very pleasant since we’re right on Pittwater. However, one person walking with two dogs of quite different size and interests is challenging – they both have long leads and I kept getting entangled in the cross-over.
Next morning was a bit different. Harley was now up much earlier than the previous day and demanding attention. I had no intention of getting up at that point (it had been a late night) and so I thought I’d let him out for a while to attend to his doggy needs with the plan to then go back to bed. We went to the laundry door and stood there with it open, expecting him to go out. However, he was standing waiting and actually shaking his head. (What you need to understand here is, his treats, which he gets for breakfast, are stored in the laundry and he knows. Another example of effective animal/human communication or my delusion – hmmm?????)
As I said, having Danita away for a few days gave us a chance to do some boy-bonding. This was the upside.
The downside was that in the middle of winter the bed gets very cold and the lack of another body does have a noticeable impact – somehow cuddling up to Sancho just doesn’t quite have the same affect.
I won’t go into the other benefits of having Danita around however…
Overall, it was nice having a couple of days with just the boys but it’s much better having Danita around to share things with – I do get much better conversation with her than Sancho, especially since he’s now deaf (or well on the way).
Now, we’re back together and looking forward to things staying that way for a while. We have committed to more overlapping housesits in a couple of months. One of the advantages of being a couple is you can actually be in two places at one time.
The house we’re now in is lovely – two storey, 4 bedroom plus a study, lovely garden in a beautiful location. We could happily stay here for quite a while. Sadly, that’s not really an option but we intend to fully enjoy our visit and look forward to the owners travelling regularly.