End of Week 3

It's Friday night and we've just finished dinner.  A roast chicken bought from the free-range organic chicken vendor on our high street and roquette salad.  Outside at dusk, to the scent of mandarin-cranberry candles on the dinner table, we chased possums through the trees with flashlights, then threw our heads back to witness a lengthy flight of fruit bats or flying foxes soaring overhead.  Flying foxes are an impressive species.  According to Wikipedia, "On average, P. vampyrus is the largest species, with a wingspan of up to 6 feet (1.83 meters) but a weight of only 1.5 kg (3.3 lb.).

J had a rough week at school, his second full week morphed from his first week marred by bullying from the same boy he had initially befriended during his first few days of friend seeking.  To his credit, he recognized and acknowledged our initial trepidation of that child and sought out the boy's mother to complain of his treatment.  It didn't stop the bullying and by the middle of this week, I had to formally complain to his teachers.  Not a great way to start a new school and there were many tearful days this week.

However, today, seemed a turning point.  Today, he marched into school without tears triumphantly grasping his first birthday party invitation; always a measure of a child's acceptance amongst his peers.  I exchanged dinner invitations with the first family who extended immediate kindness to us in the school yard, a French-Australian couple by the name of Marco and Marie-Pierre whose 6-year old daughter Amely is in the same CEP/CE1 class as J.  

It was another very hot day today, hitting 35c in the parking lot of the quarantine kennel.  Murphy was not dealing well with the heat.  I found her subdued and a little gurgly today.  That is concerning since the facility is dealing with an outbreak of kennel cough.  I took her to a grooming room for a good brushing and she was clearly desperate for a walk.  Poor girl, she is confined to her kennel and away from the exercise yards due to the kennel cough issue.  I left her this afternoon unusually passive and not her usual self.  Not a great way to spend 4 days apart, sigh.  Still, one of the principal attendants, checked on her twice today owing to my concern and promised to check on her regularly over the weekend.  Hopefully, it is just a heat thing, and a forecasted cooler weekend should help.  At 12 years old and confined to a kennel, I fret over her physical and mental health. Thunderstorms are also predicted which she hates, and I abhor the idea of her enduring them alone.

16 days and counting...