reaction

At the bank when we opened our chequeing account, at the corner store where we made copies of our driver's licenses, on our driveway chatting with our neighbours, people want to know, "What brings you here from the US?" They often say, "Are you here for a change of employment?"

To the first question, I'll answer, "We didn't want to live in the US anymore. We like Canada better." To the second, I'll say, "No, actually, a change of life. We wanted to live in Canada."

Generally the person expresses some amount of surprise, in a pleased and friendly way. The young guy at the store said, "Yeah? Wow, good stuff, I love it." The bank officer - also young, but trying to be professional - said, "Oh interesting..." and looked like he was dying to ask more. The neighbour pressed a tiny bit further. I said, "Yes, we've emigrated, we're here for political reasons". He seemed fascinated.

The woman next door is American by birth, now a dual citizen, married to a Canadian man. She emigrated ten years ago. When the other neighbour asked why we moved, she volunteered, "Thanks, George! We're getting all kinds of good people because of him."

I would categorize these reactions as polite surprise, with a desire to know more, in conflict with too much courtesy to ask.

* * * *

Buster update. Before we moved, I mentioned that we were beginning to transition him to regular food and lower dosages of medications. It didn't work.

He reacted to the new food almost immediately. We knew we couldn't take a chance on Buster being sick during the actual drive north - that would be a disaster - so we quickly put him back on his boiled chicken and rice diet. Dr S advised us to keep the meds at the same levels, to give him maximum support during the added stress of the move.

If Buster experienced any stress over the move, he certainly didn't show it. He has seemed perfectly happy and relaxed the whole time. He's come such a long way from when we first found him! On our first trip upstate, he howled and cried and screamed for hours, absolutely freaked out at being in a strange place. It was heartbreaking. I can only think he feared we were abandoning him. Each summer his reaction was a little less, until it disappeared altogether. Now, if he's with us, he's happy.

So. A few days after the move, I was unable to reach Dr S, and the Prednisone dosage was driving me insane. We couldn't leave the house for more than two hours at a time, plus we had to take B out in the middle of the night. Since he's doing well otherwise - and since the transition to regular food may be a long process of trial and error - I decided we'd reduce the Prednisone on our own, according to the schedule Dr S had already given us.

On the slightly lower dose, Buster started sleeping through the night. Whew. Allan does a late last walk, and I wake up very early for morning walk, but we both get to sleep all night. A big improvement.

Dr S called yesterday. She thought the Pred reduction was fine, but recommended we not reduce it further until we find a food B can tolerate. Next up: Special Food #5. (The fifth prescription diet we've tried.)

While I was organizing everything for our move, I made sure we had a good supply of all our meds (mine, Allan's and Buster's) and a lot of dog food, so we wouldn't have to scramble around right after we moved. Ha! We ended up having to find new food immediately before moving, and now again. Organization is all well and good, but you can only plan so much.