Farewell Coco

We lost our girl yesterday.  A very sad day.

There's a lot happening

We have a lot on our plate at the moment!

• We still have our house on the market and hope that Spring will bring a buyer.  It's getting tiresome having to keep everything so tidy all the time.
• Mick's busy working on the renovation of the house up the street.  It's all looking pretty good.
• I've made a start on moving the boxes I've packed so far out to the workshop where we'll be storing them.  Once these ones are moved I'll go on packing more.
• Work is a little complicated at the moment so we'll see what the next few weeks brings.
• The garden has taken off again so there's always work to be done.  It's looking lovely.
• I'm off to America with a friend in less than 2 weeks time.  Busy planning, booking, packing, cooking (for Mick).
• Coco is on a decline so we're watching her a bit more closely with regular visits to the vet.  She has an enlarged heart and it's causing fluid on her lungs and now problems with her kidneys.  She's been off her food a bit and has lost 4 kilograms in the last 4 weeks.  Poor old girl.

We'll be in a spot of bother if we were to sell the house in the next few weeks and the buyer wanted a short settlement.  We just couldn't do it.  Mick's not much one for packing boxes (and I'd rather do it myself) plus there's many larger things that would need moving and doing so he'd be under pressure anyway.  I'll be away until the end of October so it would all be just too hard.  We'll see what happens.

In view of Coco's declining health we think it's likely we might be looking for a narrowboat at this time next year.  We've decided we'll rent out the new house when the renovating is finished.  We don't want to hold onto two houses with one empty, especially considering we'll likely be renting that house out in 12 months time anyway.  We'll just have to work out where to live once we do sell our house.

Don't wish your life away

We just can't wait for our narrowboat adventure to begin.  With it likely to be two years away we often find ourselves wishing the time to go faster.  I catch myself when I notice I'm doing this and give myself a lecture.  Life is too short as it is without wishing it away.

There is another very good reason why we shouldn't wish this time away.  In fact it's the very reason we have to wait.  Two years ago, and just 3 months before we made our vague narrowboat dream a definite goal to work towards, we adopted Coco.  She's a chocolate labrador and at the time was 10 years old.  She's now 12 but still in great health.  She is such a lovely girl, and although the reality is that we wouldn't have taken her if if we'd heard about her 3 months later, we adore her and don't want to wish her life shorter.  We have had a couple of people offer to take her so we can go now, but it is traumatic for a dog to change families at 10 years old and we wouldn't do that to her again.  She's the most gentle and affectionate dog I've ever met!