If H. were able to drive and lived at home, it would be no big deal. He'd go get her and bring her home and he'd dog sit for a few days. We'd even pay him the same daily rate since she is a dog and by definition, not low maintenance. She's also diabetic and has insulin injections a couple times a day so compensating him seems fair.
Except he doesn't live at home and he can't drive. He would be at R.'s mercy and lately? That's about as reliable as...I can't think of a metaphor but she's not reliable. At all. Ever. The fretting and worrying about what we were going to do has been heavy on my mind lately. H. has sworn he would be able to take care of it - and if I could rely on just factoring in him and him only, I think we could leave with relative confidence. But he has no way to get to Ripon and back home that's guaranteed and I just can't risk it. I don't want to create any stress for our kennel owner who is an amazing person and has been so kind to us. She watched Chloe during H.'s entire hospital stay in 2014 and wouldn't take a dime from us for it. She said 'from one cancer survivor to another'. Bless her heart.
On the subject of blessings, I've got a couple super dear friends at work who said they would take care of Chloe - and one of those people is someone who hasn't always been someone I would consider a friend so that's really saying something. But I really don't like to impose on people and that plan still involved them assisting in getting H. and the dog here - and I picture H. keeping them waiting at the apartment forever.
J. mentioned to his best friend R. (the guy we jokingly refer to as 'J.'s other wife' because they do things together all the time - the two of them are concert junkies and the wives are happy with that arrangement because they like to go to shows a lot and we'd rather not. It's a win-win) that we had an issue with the timing of our kennel in October and he mentioned that they take their dog Patches to a home in Livermore. Two vet techs. They only take small dogs. In home care - not a licensed kennel.
We took Chloe to Livermore for a meet and greet and she was a happy puppy. There were three other dachshunds there this weekend and Chloe fit right in. The couple are two older women and their home is tucked away right behind Livermore high school. I think it's about an acre - plenty of land and room. They've got everything double fenced and have chickens, a huge koi pond and foster feral kittens for adoption. Really nice people and the lady D. said 'I know within the first 30 seconds if it's going to work out or not' and then 'Chloe is going to be very happy here'. Whew! I felt like I did the one time I tried to join a sorority - I didn't get in which was probably a blessing - but glad we 'passed' the meet and greet.
Chloe did her usual super whining the whole way there but was pretty calm on the way back - with a big smile on her face. We stopped at the Starbucks coming back in to Tracy and treated her to her first Puppacino - whip cream in a cup.
I think we're going to try to go for a drive more often. It's late in her life for this but maybe we could get her more used to the car - she seemed super fine once she realized no needles would be involved. No pokes or sticks or anything else. Just out with her family for an afternoon drive.
We're set for our vacation in October and I'm super relieved. Haven't told H. yet - haven't seen him today but might later - and I know he might be disappointed but oh well. I just can't risk it.
H. texted J. at 11:30PM last night asking if he had any money in his checking account or savings. Um...we have no idea because your account is no longer linked to ours....and by the way, you haven't had a savings account in forever. Something was 'wrong' with R.'s account and they appeared to be 'stuck' somewhere. J. went back to bed.
Small victories. Love our son but we're moving past the constant drama. There will be hard lessons for him to learn but oh well. It's life. Time to deal. Choices and decisions have consequences.
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