The week before I left to come, here, to Nova Scotia for Christmas, John had to make a trip to Malaysia. He left on the Sunday and I was to pick him up early on Friday morning. For some reason, on this particular week away the time dragged...usually it doesn't.....but by Thursday I was counting the hours.
Most of the time, when he is away, I'm pretty comfortable in the house despite its dubious past. I keep the doors locked, try to remember to close the curtains when it gets dark, and make sure (when I remember) the phone isn't at the other end of the house. When I heard a noise outside at 6:30 pm on his last night away, my cell phone was hiding in my purse, out in the front porch. I was sitting at my desk in the dining room nook.
The noise was unusual, but....after a little tingle of spidey-senses, I concluded that maybe something had fallen over in the laundry room....until a couple of minutes later when something hit the house very hard.
I looked around for my phone, abandoned the Yahoo conversation I was having with my mother, and made a dash for the front porch and my purse. Kenai, who had been sleeping by my chair, at least stood up and walked over to the kitchen door...wondering, I suppose, what had disturbed his power nap. He didn't go crazy with the barking that he normally uses to warn me of evil invading postmen and flier delivery boys.
With phone in hand, and my thumb on the "1" of "112", I waited for another sound but none came. I relaxed a little and tiptoed to the kitchen door. The curtains were wide open, beyond the window it was pitch black over the driveway, and there was a small stream of water running down the center of the large kitchen window....a small piece of snow at the top. It appeared that someone had thrown a snowball at the window....drilled would be a better description since I actually felt the shudder in my desk chair. My first thought was that the boys next door were out enjoying the fresh snow we had that day and had lobbed one over the hedge and hit the window....except the hedge is 12 feet high and whatever hit the house wasn't lobbed. I thought it was weird that someone would come up our driveway just to throw a snowball at the house. I wished the driveway wasn't as long, nor the house so private, surrounded by those tall hedges.
I turned out the kitchen light and looked down the driveway. Standing in the street, just beyond the end of our drive were 6 guys in dark jackets, all had their hoods pulled up over their heads....some were lighting cigarettes. They looked much older than kids having a snowball fight. I stood there and watched them as they started to walk away, taking their time....stopping....walking a bit....looking around...walking...stopping....and so on and such that it took about 10 minutes for them to completely disappear down the walking path that starts at the end of our cul de sac.
I didn't call the police. Why? Because while I was watching them, I came up with a perfectly reasonable explanation for them being in my driveway. They had come expecting to have a little party with the former ladies of the house and were leaving disappointed, having read the "Business Closed" sign that's still on the front door. Out of frustration, one of them threw a snowball at the window and away they went, slowly. There was a certain air of "so, what are we going to do now, asshole" in their exit. I'm a bit taken aback by the fact that I was able to relax knowing that it was just six guys coming to the door looking for hookers. How did I ever get to that place, I wonder? Funny, how you get used to your situation in life no matter what it happens to be.
At 7:00 the next morning, John was due in at the airport so I loaded Kenai into the backseat of the car at 6:30 am. I decided to check the driveway for footprints before I left, and discovered that there was only one set of prints in the fresh snow...but...that set of prints came only as far as, and turned into, the kitchen window. There was no way that who ever had come up the driveway could have seen the "Business Closed" sign. So....that was creepy!
The only explanation I could come up with was that one of the 6 guys at the end of the driveway had come up scouting the windows for signs of life (beyond the fact that the car was in the driveway) and for some reason, saw something that made him decide there was someone here. It's possible that he saw the dog when he stood up for the thump against the house. I think he was asleep by my chair when that happened but he did get up and go to the kitchen to look.
I collected John at the airport, brought him home, and told him all about the prowlers. He showered and I reluctantly drove him to the office around noon time. When I came back, I began to do some laundry and ironing for my trip home on Sunday. I was filling the iron at the kitchen sink and happened to look out the window to see a police car parked at the end of the driveway. After a minute or so of gawking, I see a policeman come out of the next door neighbor's drive with a man. He stops by the car, asks the man for some ID, and phones in the information on his mobile. All the while, I am peeking out of the window trying not to be seen by the "perp" who is standing facing our house. A few minutes after that, a policeman with a police dog comes up the walking the path....so obviously, something has happened in the neighborhood. I figured someone has been broken into or attacked in their home or something bad!
At this point, I figure I had better tell the police about what happened here the night before....except I want to wait until they have this guy being questioned either in the car or on his way. They let him go and he wanders off down the walking path. Not sure why they let him go....he was found on the neighbor's property...and didn't appear to be there for any reason at all. I pulled on my coat and boots, and headed down the driveway to "file my report" from last night (a day late but whose counting?). Well, I'm a little slow and the driveway's a little long, and by the time I got there....the police car was pulling away.
Well, since I was all suited up for the outdoors and ready to talk, I kept on going.... over to the other next door neighbor's house to ask her if she had seen the police car and to find out if she knew what was going on. As it turns out, the postman had come to her door and asked to call the police because he noticed a suspicious person hanging around my house, her house and the other neighbor's house. Nice....
I told her what had happened at our house the night before. It was one way to finally meet a new neighbor.
John stayed home from the office Christmas party that night and on Saturday morning we went to the post office to have the mail held while we were away. It sure looked like we were being scoped out for a holiday break and enter. Penny and Ulrik volunteered to check on the house while we were away, but we couldn't get hold of Lars, the landlord, whom we hadn't seen for a couple of weeks. When we tried to phone him, his phone was disconnected. He had no idea we were going away, and I was planning to give him a key, and tell him he could hang around if he wanted a break from his parents place. He also might have wanted to make sure his insurance was paid up since most the stuff in here belongs to him. Penny and Ulrik would be taking Kenai while we were gone, and most of that time would be spent with Ulrik's family a couple of hours away in Svendborg. They would check on the house before they left and a week later when they got back.
Oh well...nothing else to be done, except hope that the guy the police found skulking around on Friday was part of the Thursday night group, and that they were smart enough to realize that the cops now had a name and an address if a house did get broken into on the street. At least they would know where to start. I left two days later, relieved that I didn't have to spend anymore days and nights alone in the house for a while. The plan was for John to take the photo negatives and my jewelry box to Penny and Ulrik's, when he went to drop Kenai off, but instead of him going there, they came to the house to pick him up themselves and John forgot to give them the other things. I was pretty sure, despite John's theory that there was no way they would be dumb enough to try and hit our place again, that we would be coming home on New Year's Day to an empty house. A few days after he got to Halifax, he told me that someone was creeping around later on the day that I left.
On Christmas Eve morning we were woken at 7:00 by John's phone. I heard John say, "Ulrik?" and then he asked me if I was awake. In my experience, so far, only bad news comes at 7:00 am, and bad news it was. Penny and Ulrik were at a vet hospital in Svendborg with Kenai. They told us that Kenai was very sick. We knew he'd had a couple of episodes of vomiting the previous afternoon, but they had continued through the night, and he was now so weak that he couldn't walk or stand. The vet wanted to do do some blood tests and x-rays and he came on the phone to discuss what he thought should be done. He suspected liver failure, probably caused by a tumor. He could tell for certain after the tests, but he let us know that Kenai was a very sick dog. If the tests confirmed his suspicions the best thing we could do for him was to put him to sleep. He could have the results very soon. We agreed to the tests, hung up, and then laid back down in bed, stunned, to wait.
We couldn't believe it. Our beautiful, funny, lovable boy, so sick and us so far away. But we knew in our hearts, even before those tests results came back, that we were never going to see him again. We quietly talked about what to do with him after, we felt terrible about our good friends having to deal with such a difficult thing....on Christmas Eve, no less. Penny and Ulrik had so been looking forward having Kenai for the holidays, and since Ulrik is Kenai's best friend in the whole wide world, we kept telling him he was going to have the best Christmas ever when we were gone. He almost did. I bet he didn't know there was a Christmas dinner coming along in about 6 hours time.
When the results came a half hour later, the vet's suspicions were confirmed. There was a large tumor on Kenai's liver and there was no choice of what to do. The liver had shut down and the poisons were going through his system affecting the other organs, causing them to shut down, too. Thank you, Penny and Ulrik for staying with him until the end and saying our goodbyes for us. I am heartbroken that we weren't there to be with him at the end. He was such a big and important part of our family. We are going to miss him so much when we come home, to an empty house. I don't care about any of that other stuff anymore.
R.I.P. Kenai ~ April 8, 1998 - December 24, 2010
Most of the time, when he is away, I'm pretty comfortable in the house despite its dubious past. I keep the doors locked, try to remember to close the curtains when it gets dark, and make sure (when I remember) the phone isn't at the other end of the house. When I heard a noise outside at 6:30 pm on his last night away, my cell phone was hiding in my purse, out in the front porch. I was sitting at my desk in the dining room nook.
The noise was unusual, but....after a little tingle of spidey-senses, I concluded that maybe something had fallen over in the laundry room....until a couple of minutes later when something hit the house very hard.
I looked around for my phone, abandoned the Yahoo conversation I was having with my mother, and made a dash for the front porch and my purse. Kenai, who had been sleeping by my chair, at least stood up and walked over to the kitchen door...wondering, I suppose, what had disturbed his power nap. He didn't go crazy with the barking that he normally uses to warn me of evil invading postmen and flier delivery boys.
With phone in hand, and my thumb on the "1" of "112", I waited for another sound but none came. I relaxed a little and tiptoed to the kitchen door. The curtains were wide open, beyond the window it was pitch black over the driveway, and there was a small stream of water running down the center of the large kitchen window....a small piece of snow at the top. It appeared that someone had thrown a snowball at the window....drilled would be a better description since I actually felt the shudder in my desk chair. My first thought was that the boys next door were out enjoying the fresh snow we had that day and had lobbed one over the hedge and hit the window....except the hedge is 12 feet high and whatever hit the house wasn't lobbed. I thought it was weird that someone would come up our driveway just to throw a snowball at the house. I wished the driveway wasn't as long, nor the house so private, surrounded by those tall hedges.
I turned out the kitchen light and looked down the driveway. Standing in the street, just beyond the end of our drive were 6 guys in dark jackets, all had their hoods pulled up over their heads....some were lighting cigarettes. They looked much older than kids having a snowball fight. I stood there and watched them as they started to walk away, taking their time....stopping....walking a bit....looking around...walking...stopping....and so on and such that it took about 10 minutes for them to completely disappear down the walking path that starts at the end of our cul de sac.
I didn't call the police. Why? Because while I was watching them, I came up with a perfectly reasonable explanation for them being in my driveway. They had come expecting to have a little party with the former ladies of the house and were leaving disappointed, having read the "Business Closed" sign that's still on the front door. Out of frustration, one of them threw a snowball at the window and away they went, slowly. There was a certain air of "so, what are we going to do now, asshole" in their exit. I'm a bit taken aback by the fact that I was able to relax knowing that it was just six guys coming to the door looking for hookers. How did I ever get to that place, I wonder? Funny, how you get used to your situation in life no matter what it happens to be.
At 7:00 the next morning, John was due in at the airport so I loaded Kenai into the backseat of the car at 6:30 am. I decided to check the driveway for footprints before I left, and discovered that there was only one set of prints in the fresh snow...but...that set of prints came only as far as, and turned into, the kitchen window. There was no way that who ever had come up the driveway could have seen the "Business Closed" sign. So....that was creepy!
The only explanation I could come up with was that one of the 6 guys at the end of the driveway had come up scouting the windows for signs of life (beyond the fact that the car was in the driveway) and for some reason, saw something that made him decide there was someone here. It's possible that he saw the dog when he stood up for the thump against the house. I think he was asleep by my chair when that happened but he did get up and go to the kitchen to look.
I collected John at the airport, brought him home, and told him all about the prowlers. He showered and I reluctantly drove him to the office around noon time. When I came back, I began to do some laundry and ironing for my trip home on Sunday. I was filling the iron at the kitchen sink and happened to look out the window to see a police car parked at the end of the driveway. After a minute or so of gawking, I see a policeman come out of the next door neighbor's drive with a man. He stops by the car, asks the man for some ID, and phones in the information on his mobile. All the while, I am peeking out of the window trying not to be seen by the "perp" who is standing facing our house. A few minutes after that, a policeman with a police dog comes up the walking the path....so obviously, something has happened in the neighborhood. I figured someone has been broken into or attacked in their home or something bad!
At this point, I figure I had better tell the police about what happened here the night before....except I want to wait until they have this guy being questioned either in the car or on his way. They let him go and he wanders off down the walking path. Not sure why they let him go....he was found on the neighbor's property...and didn't appear to be there for any reason at all. I pulled on my coat and boots, and headed down the driveway to "file my report" from last night (a day late but whose counting?). Well, I'm a little slow and the driveway's a little long, and by the time I got there....the police car was pulling away.
Well, since I was all suited up for the outdoors and ready to talk, I kept on going.... over to the other next door neighbor's house to ask her if she had seen the police car and to find out if she knew what was going on. As it turns out, the postman had come to her door and asked to call the police because he noticed a suspicious person hanging around my house, her house and the other neighbor's house. Nice....
I told her what had happened at our house the night before. It was one way to finally meet a new neighbor.
John stayed home from the office Christmas party that night and on Saturday morning we went to the post office to have the mail held while we were away. It sure looked like we were being scoped out for a holiday break and enter. Penny and Ulrik volunteered to check on the house while we were away, but we couldn't get hold of Lars, the landlord, whom we hadn't seen for a couple of weeks. When we tried to phone him, his phone was disconnected. He had no idea we were going away, and I was planning to give him a key, and tell him he could hang around if he wanted a break from his parents place. He also might have wanted to make sure his insurance was paid up since most the stuff in here belongs to him. Penny and Ulrik would be taking Kenai while we were gone, and most of that time would be spent with Ulrik's family a couple of hours away in Svendborg. They would check on the house before they left and a week later when they got back.
Oh well...nothing else to be done, except hope that the guy the police found skulking around on Friday was part of the Thursday night group, and that they were smart enough to realize that the cops now had a name and an address if a house did get broken into on the street. At least they would know where to start. I left two days later, relieved that I didn't have to spend anymore days and nights alone in the house for a while. The plan was for John to take the photo negatives and my jewelry box to Penny and Ulrik's, when he went to drop Kenai off, but instead of him going there, they came to the house to pick him up themselves and John forgot to give them the other things. I was pretty sure, despite John's theory that there was no way they would be dumb enough to try and hit our place again, that we would be coming home on New Year's Day to an empty house. A few days after he got to Halifax, he told me that someone was creeping around later on the day that I left.
On Christmas Eve morning we were woken at 7:00 by John's phone. I heard John say, "Ulrik?" and then he asked me if I was awake. In my experience, so far, only bad news comes at 7:00 am, and bad news it was. Penny and Ulrik were at a vet hospital in Svendborg with Kenai. They told us that Kenai was very sick. We knew he'd had a couple of episodes of vomiting the previous afternoon, but they had continued through the night, and he was now so weak that he couldn't walk or stand. The vet wanted to do do some blood tests and x-rays and he came on the phone to discuss what he thought should be done. He suspected liver failure, probably caused by a tumor. He could tell for certain after the tests, but he let us know that Kenai was a very sick dog. If the tests confirmed his suspicions the best thing we could do for him was to put him to sleep. He could have the results very soon. We agreed to the tests, hung up, and then laid back down in bed, stunned, to wait.
We couldn't believe it. Our beautiful, funny, lovable boy, so sick and us so far away. But we knew in our hearts, even before those tests results came back, that we were never going to see him again. We quietly talked about what to do with him after, we felt terrible about our good friends having to deal with such a difficult thing....on Christmas Eve, no less. Penny and Ulrik had so been looking forward having Kenai for the holidays, and since Ulrik is Kenai's best friend in the whole wide world, we kept telling him he was going to have the best Christmas ever when we were gone. He almost did. I bet he didn't know there was a Christmas dinner coming along in about 6 hours time.
When the results came a half hour later, the vet's suspicions were confirmed. There was a large tumor on Kenai's liver and there was no choice of what to do. The liver had shut down and the poisons were going through his system affecting the other organs, causing them to shut down, too. Thank you, Penny and Ulrik for staying with him until the end and saying our goodbyes for us. I am heartbroken that we weren't there to be with him at the end. He was such a big and important part of our family. We are going to miss him so much when we come home, to an empty house. I don't care about any of that other stuff anymore.
2 comments:
Oh Karen, I am so sad for you that you lost your beautiful boy. My heart aches for you. How awful not to be there to hold him at the end.
I had to have my old kitty, Billie, put down 2 weeks before Christmas. I thought I would be OK with it because he was 19 and very sick. It was time. But I cried an ocean that afternoon. It's so hard to say goodbye. Big hugs and God bless.
Liz B.
You live a life unimaginable to me! But what a great story teller you are! May peace be with you and John in the remembrances of your beloved Kenai. You will meet up with him again.. I just know.
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