Life with a Reactive Dog and The Senior Prom - a short story

George and myself at the Milton Mutt Strutt 2016.

As some people know, I'm currently being sued thanks to an accident George and I had while still living in our apartment building last year. Though I can't go into details - in this particular case - it wasn't George's fault, or mine, it was just an accident. But someone is trying to take advantage of the fact that we were covered by apartment insurance and they are looking to make a quick buck from my insurance company, State Farm.

Living with a reactive dog is rough. Living in an apartment building with a reactive dog was nothing less than a nightmare, every single day. I was physically ill for a year straight due to the stress of having to get George in and out of the apartment building at least twice a day. It was awful, but what choice did I have? After the incident in question, things were even more stressful, would we have another accident?
I lived on the 12th floor and couldn't use the elevator to take George out, he doesn't like surprises or strangers. I would walk up and down the stairs, weary of people coming in and out of the stairwell, there was never any feeling of safety at any point. It was so stressful.

Once I'd get him out of the building, there was still no relief. The apartment was located on a very busy corner and there were people everywhere - there was never any break from strangers. When George went to the bathroom I had to step on the leash before I cleaned up the mess, because people always seemed to come close whenever I was distracted for a moment. And George is very strong and his bark is quite scary.

Life was awful, stressful, sucked balls and 2015 was by far, the most painful, unsuccessful and depressing year of my life and I don't know how I made it through the year without slitting my wrists. The thought did occur to me, pretty much every day, but I had belief that things couldn't possibly get worse. Could they?

When it came time to find a new apartment in Oakville - a place that would be more suitable to a life that includes a strong, reactive dog like George - it was near impossible. Potential landlords had no idea what kind of dog George was, they just didn't want dogs in their rental units at all because they were worried about damage. I gave myself almost three full months to find a place and was two weeks away from being homeless before luck finally changed for us.

One of the volunteers at work had heard that I was looking for a place (Thanks to Kirsten Dressler!) and she was looking for a tenant. The place sounded perfect and when I went to see it, it was even better than I imagined - I couldn't believe my luck.

The only real issue: It was a basement apartment that didn't have a separate entrance and G.C. had 2 cats and a dog. 

I worried about getting George in and out every day without him fighting with the dog or chasing her cats - though I knew it couldn't be worse than what I had to go through in the apartment building.

Turned out I was worried about nothing. George and her dog Casey, get along great and there has never been a single issue in the six months we've been lucky enough to live here.

We have a backyard now and getting George in and out of the house takes about five seconds, instead of the fifteen minutes it used to take us. And without any stress.

George is still reactive but life is so much better for us now. We have less stress, the apartment is quiet and welcoming and in general, we are loving life.

Living with a big, strong reactive dog isn't easy and wouldn't work for most people.

Lucky for George, I'm not like most people. 

George and his flat mate, Casey. 

In this weeks blog I've also included the second story from my anthology Little Surfer Girl. If you haven't read the first part, it's probably still funny, but I'd recommend going back to the last blog to read the first part.

Cheers,

Mike, George, Tito and foster cat California.

2016