Shadows Adventures - All Change This is a difficult story for me to write, but its thanks to Shadow, Sky, my parents, my brother Jim and my friends Sarah and Ray that things changed for the better and not for the worse! So here goes: In February 2009 the person i house shared with was in hospital and when I went to visit I received some very unexpected news - I was asked to leave the bungalow! I was told that aspects of my Aspergers made me too difficult to live with; I didnt naturally interact with people and offer to take peoples coats, or offer drinks when people visited, and I didnt clear up my study materials each night. As the bungalow was a housing association property in the name of the other people I had no entitlement to be there. My Dad came down to Leicester, from Cumbria immediately and we sorted out a few things at the bungalow, packed up the essentials, dog beds, toys, clothes, my musical instruments and study materials - as much as we could fit into his car and safely transport, along with the dogs! We left the following day and I moved back into my parents house. This caused a slight problem - as you remember Jack, my parents Border Collie and Shadow, werent the biggest fans of one another!! My Great Aunt Molly offered on the 15th Feb that I could go and live with her until I found my own place, but then i think she remembered back to when we as a family with Ebony and Jack had stayed with her while looking for my parents house after moving from Lincolnshire in 2002 and she retracted the offer. I fully understand my Great Aunts retraction, she was in her 80s and when we had stayed before with 2 dogs she was always walking into them or nearly falling over them! Shadow would have blended in beautifully with her carpet and Sky was still very much a youngster who Molly loved dearly (the only dog Ive ever seen my Great Aunt allow on her knee for a cuddle!) but Sky would have tripped her up. So Dad and myself devised a plan, we each had a phone in the house and we used the intercom feature to call each other so we knew when either of the boys was on the move! If Jack and shadow saw each other they growled and got agitated so we made it so they didnt meet! The plan was to leave the remainder of my things in Leicester until I had somewhere to live and we started the house search as a matter of urgency! Renting wasnt an option as we couldnt find anywhere to accept 2 dogs and there was no way I was leaving either of them, recent events had made me much more distrusting of people again and it was Shadow and Skys joyful natures that helped me through. I found new and exciting walks for us, and sometimes we would go out 3 or more times a day to watch the lambs playing in the local fields. dad took us down to the beach at Roanhead (without Jack) and they got to run and play on the beach again, which they loved - no seal pups or rams heads we found during these visits - I had purchased a long line for Shadow as he was going a bit deaf so I could grab the end if he was going a bit too far away and wasnt responding to being called. At the end of March we thought we had found a house and Shadow, Dad and me when down to Leicester to pack up and collect the remainder of my things, my brother Jim, hiring a van for the day after. While we packed Shadow went to stay with Sarah and then once we were finished for the day we joined her and Ray for pizza. The funniest thing of that evening was that Shadow, knowing he was not to take food was so well behaved when the pizza came out, he just lay down and went to sleep - it was Sarahs dog Rufus, who had achieve levels of obedience that Shadow had failed due to not being able to stay still, that was trying to steal the food!!! At least Shadow had impressed his dog trainer :P We stayed in the travelodge overnight and of course Shadow slept on the bed with me! The next day Jim met us with the van and the 3 of us packed the van and car and drove back to the Lake District and repacked it all into my parents garage. Unfortunately the house we had found came back with a survey saying it was basically likely to fall down, so we didnt go for that one! Shadow was still up to his tricks and mums diary details that we came back on the 25th April after leaving Shadow in the kitchen to find that he had eaten 2 loaves of bread that Dad had recently baked!! Shadow and Sky were registered at the same vet as Jack and with continuing metacam treatment for his joints Shadow became able to walk further, until he could quite happily walk about 5 miles without a problem. On the 15th May 2009 we completed on a house in Dalton in Furness, and we slowly moved in. It was our first home that was truly owned by us (technically belonging to my Parents and Great Aunt, but it was mine!!) and the beginning of our new life began. While staying at my parents I had made some decisions that I was going to move forward with my life and not backwards, it would have been easy, with the uncertainty and all the changes for me to breakdown or revert to anorexic and self harm, but I had something I hadnt had before. I had my dogs, they needed me and gave me a reason for living. I decided that I wasnt happy being on state benefits anymore, I was going to support myself and my dogs, and be more independent than I had been led to believe was possible due to my Aspergers. At the time I had no idea how I would do it but the plan was there!
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 10:48:38 +0000
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