XXIX: Deuteragonist / Reaching For Something I Didn't Know Wasn't There

Fifteen minutes of your time, please. I have half a cup of coffee and no dogs. I need to go to the grocery store in a bit.

It's been a change of pace as we officially welcomed Bastian into our home this weekend. Thursday was the pickup, for which I was due at Pearson Airport at the ungodly hour of 7:05 AM, which if we're being honest is probably preferable to getting to the airport for 8:05 AM or later. The decision was made the night before, that I would make the trek alone, once we determined that we would have to depart sometime just after 6 AM. Mel has never been good with mornings so asking her to get up and go somewhere at that time is something that we should just avoid if at all possible. I was confident anyway that I could handle the trip on my own.

So I got up at 5:40 AM Thursday, made a cup of coffee, forgot to pack any granola bars or anything, and headed out in the borrowed GMC SUV I borrowed from my dad, with a playlist of 90s rock blaring. The drive was relatively smooth. It helped that I had just been to the airport a few weeks earlier, and had refreshed what lanes to be in when, so I didn't make any errors when getting to the exit. However, I was going to the cell phone lot rather than the terminal parking, so that required extra navigation. I had forgotten to install my cell phone holder before starting, so I had to kind of lay my phone awkwardly in the dash and hope I would catch the instructions. It worked out. I got there on time/early. I unfortunately had to use one of the port-a-johns they had there, but I was grateful they were there, as gross as they are.

Edit July 30: I should also mention that this was taking place while the air quality was suffering from the northern Ontario wildfires. The day before, when I went to get the car, the sky was yellow, but it was already clearing up by now. Edit over. 

Anyway, after not too long of a wait -- about 40 minutes -- I got the call to proceed to the terminal. We loaded Bastian into the car, I snapped a pic for Mel and was on my way. It was about 55 minutes to get home, partly extended because I got off the highway at Appleby and took Mainway. It probably didn't save me any time, but you know, sometimes you'd rather be moving than staying still on the highway, eh?

With Hank secured in the bedroom we let Bastian decompress. I had a ton of errands to run, including getting a nice breakfast, picking up additional supplies for Basty (they had given us some the day before, but not a properly fitting collar) and dropping my dad's car back off, so I was running around like crazy all day, which is not dissimilar to our first day with Hank.

He's a very sweet, cuddly boy who mostly just wants to lie on the floor and be with people, which is great. His presence has been a bit disruptive to Hank. Ultimately we decided to introduce them yesterday after two days in the house, because it wasn't feasible to keep them separate much longer. It's OK -- there have definitely been times they've been relaxed around each other, but sometimes Bastian growls and then Hank growls... they did go on a walk together, but it's not all roses so far. it's a lot of sitting in one room with one dog and another room with the other.

We'll get there.

Last night before bed, Mel noted it was harder than she thought. I noted it was exactly as hard as I thought and I'd said so, and I don't love saying "I told you so" but I kinda do. I knew it would be hard and I made sure to point that out at every turn as I resisted giving into her desire to have another foster. But I couldn't put it off forever. So we made this commitment, and it falls to me to mostly manage it.

We'll see how it goes, and how it affects my life. I feel like I might lose a lot of opportunity to do things I want for myself or even keep searching for jobs while I direct canine traffic, but it is what it is.

Anyway, that's all to report now. I've got some stuff to do and then it's doggie duty.

Keep on rockin'

-Scotto