visit

We had dinner with Nick and Mason last night, our first visit to Chez LWB.

Their house is fabulous - a beautiful house in a terrific neighbourhood (my favourite part of Toronto), and gorgeously decorated. And I thought we settled in quickly! These guys look like they've lived here for years. Their place has that rich, warm, cluttered feel; it's beautiful and very inviting.

The company was great, the house was great, but it won't surprise you to learn that the highlight of the evening, for us, was finally meeting the kids: Athena and Cian, Nick and Mason's two German Shepherds. When we're around dogs like that, Allan and I have to remember to pay attention to the humans.

Spending time with Athena and Cian confirms for me why I want another dog. We've enjoyed this last year with only Cody (although I feel weird saying that: how I could enjoy something that happened because of Buster's death?). Life with our one no-maintenance dog has been so relaxed and easy-going. It was a great relief after our extremely high-maintenance, high-stress odyssey with Mr Special Needs.

But now that's well behind us, and Cody is just not enough dog for me. In fact, I'm not entirely convinced she is a dog. I suspect she's really a cat dressed up like a dog. We need Tala to sop up all that extra affection and attention that Cody doesn't want.