It’s been a very, very busy month or two. Apologies to anyone who enjoyed reading the blog more regularly — these past two months have involved a kidney infection (me) and a move (all of us!). It’s been more than a little crazy with all this stuff going on at once, unsurprisingly.
Quick news: The new place is lovely. We didn’t move far but now we have a fantastic roommate sharing the place with us, a gorgeous deck that we spend hours sitting on, and even a back yard (not fully fenced, but even though she can’t run off leash Storm is loving having green space of her very own to roll about on during the hot days and chase toys on using her long line lead). The street is quieter, which is wonderful for my head. I don’t usually do well with change but this one has been marvelous.
Moving with a SDiT was definitely interesting. I didn’t realize how wonderful my last landlord was; I definitely miss having her handling things so well. My new landlord, before offering us a lease to sign, was very hesitant about Stormlight. The pet policy was cats only, and the landlord tried to treat her as a pet. He also asked me repeatedly why I have her (I was nice and open because the place is so perfect and I wanted him to like us and give us the lease); he referred to her as a pet in a lease addendum; he implied I wouldn’t pick up after my dog, repeatedly; and he continued to ask for a pet deposit. My dad reminded me this was clearly his first time having a tenant with an assistance animal, but he knew the day before meeting us about her and seems not to have familiarized himself with the FHA or service dogs in general. Storm behaved beautifully and since he kept asking to pat her I took her off duty at the end and she as always changed to “dog mode” and got lots of head scratches. I was worried about whether that was the right thing to do but my dad and roommate assured me that it helped not only by indulging the landlord but also by showing how professional Storm was on duty and how sweetly friendly off duty.
We did get the lease, signed it, etc. and live here now happily, as you’ll already know from the beginning of the post. It’s been worth the trouble for sure. We’ve even befriended a family across the street with lovely children who adore Storm and definitely make me smile.
I’ll get back to the blog being regular as things settle. Storm is snuggled beside me as I write, and our cat Tikvah is curled up on her favorite chair. Life is pretty good right now.
As a side note — I’m on progestin (I have to take it periodically to balance estrogen, thanks to my POI) so super forgetful, in more pain, queasier, dizzier, etc. The forgetful bit means that I may in fact not post as regularly as hoped but fingers crossed.
Operation: SuperStorm 