Happy is he who dares courageously to defend what he loves.
- Ovid
The SPCA and Animal Services have decided to change the time and location of my brief weekly visits with Brindi. Last Wednesday when I arrived at 1 pm, I was asked, "Didn't you hear?" It turned out that the two parties decided that we could no longer spend time outdoors at 1 pm; instead we would be inside and the visit would start at 4 pm. This was not something I had agreed on, for two reasons. First, Brindi needs all the outdoor exercise she can get. Or at least fresh air. She doesn't really get much exercise in the pen.
Second, in the room they allow us to use, which is a newly refurbished waiting room to the left of the lobby, Brindi can see out the windows to the street. And boy does she know it's the outside world and boy does she WANT TO BE FREE. It was torture for us both, frankly, as I posted last week.
She was the best girl throughout but she could not resist jumping on the couch and sitting prettily while gazing out those windows with longing. I tried once to get her down and she obeyed, but I didn't have the heart to do it again, and I ended up just sitting next to her on the couch. By the end of the time, I was hugging her close and praying and weeping all at once, with my head resting on her back. It was awful.
Yesterday my lawyer reminded me - inadvertently, really - about this change. He had tried to no avail to talk the SPCA out of the the change. They claim they have to watch me during the visit, more closely than they do outside, so that I don't give Brindi "contraband" treats. As if I would deliberately make my dog sick. In the event, nobody watched me anyhow, and it was moot. The person from Animal Services assigned to watch me spent the time out in the lobby deep in conversation with an SPCA investigator.
By today my lawyer was supposed to have worked out with HRM to get the agreement back to where it was before. But that hasn't happened. So I dread another tortuous time with Brindi in that room with those windows, a single pane of glass the only thing separating her from the freedom we both long for.
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