End of the week

It's been a pretty full on end of the week and weekend.

Friday I moved out of home, it's only for 4 weeks as I house sit for some friends who are travelling overseas, even so moving out and getting set up here has taken a fair effort.

The house is only 5 minutes from my parents place, so that makes things slightly easier. I went shopping yesterday and realised how much groceries can take out of your wallet. I'm really enjoying it though, being on my own, living independently and all that. I did do this 4 years ago when I lived in The Gambia, and had planned on moving out when I got home, but after being in Africa for 5 months staying at home just seemed like a sensible and right thing to do at the time. I think I've left it too long now though, I'm certainly ready to be out on my own again.

Though I called in at home today to learn some pretty sad news. It seems my dog, Wilson, is dieing. It's such a bummer, and I can't begin to explain why Wilson means so much to me. He's a 13 year old cattle dog, and I know he's old. He's been slowing down a lot in the past year, but last night he stopped eating and it seems like he can hardly walk. He ate a bit while I was there today, but he just seems to be slowly stopping.

Wilson isn't a work dog, he's a family pet. I'm lucky enough to only had 2 dogs in my lifetime, both having lived a long time. We got Wilson in 1995 as my previous dog Sol had aged to a point where we knew he only had months to live. Wilson came into our house a 6 weeks of age, a little bundle of fur, and all through out my highschool years and beyond he's been my mate.

Dog are there as well I think to teach you responsibility, and looking after Wilson really impacted my journey into becoming a man. I think now that he seems beyond all help it is the hardest thing to handle, that I've been responsible for him for so long, now I can to nothing but watch him slow down.

Some people don't really get attached to their pets, I don't know why, but maybe it's just me but I've felt Wilson has his own unique personality, slightly different to every other dog out there. In highschool and even through uni and work when things really pissed me off I use to go right down the back of our yard and just sit by myself and let myself vent. Most times Wilson would either follow me or find me out and just sit there with his head on my knee... so it always seemed he knew how I was feeling. It's those times you don't need someone to preach at you, teach you or even say anything, they just need to be there... and as shallow as it sounds Wilson was always just there.

It's hard too cause it seems as soon as I walk out of the house for 4 weeks suddenly Wils takes a turn for the worse, and suddenly all I wanna do is go back and spend every moment I can with him. Mum will do anything for Wilson, he's been her baby for the past 13 years, so he's had it good. I just hope he's not actually in too much pain, and even today he was able to get up and put his head on my knee.

I'll miss him real bad though...