How can it be...

The Home for Life thing is a scheme they run so that they'll look after your pets if you die.

Awww... hopefully you'll still be nicely snuggled up in bed! It's at 2.00pm UK time. My CPN will pick me up at 1.15.

I'm alternating between hope and not daring to hope because I've got to somehow manage if/when they say there's nothing anyone can do. We'll see what happens. I'll no doubt be posting on here when I get back.

I really appreciate your comments on all of this Roadrunner, not just because it's a comfort, but because it really makes me try as hard as I can to be well. It makes me better. Thank you!

Ok... final update (with any luck)

Seen a solicitor today. Unfortunately, we can't do anything about the stress we've been put under. Also the chances of the Ombudsman turning out to be even halfway decent is nil. That's the bad news.

The good news is that if our Council applied to the court for a possession order based on what they have so far, they wouldn't get very far. Even IF a judge decided that our dog was making a noise (which would be impossible as we have been recording every time we go out), he would tell us to stop our dog making a noise and then the Council would have to go through their entire procedure again.

When the council officer said he could have us evicted because he had heard our dog barking, that was a lie.

Since it won't make a difference, I can feel free to reply to the Ombudsman in any way I wish. I'll have to give some thought to that.

Feel a million times better! I'm free! For so long I've been convinced that we would end up homeless simply because our neighbour doesn't like us for some reason and thinks he can get rid of us if he complains enough. He can't. I'm going to live again!

I'm going to start going to the gym again!

Woohoo!!

...I should add that the chances of my doing anything monumentally stupid have completely evaporated. If my living next door annoys my neighbour, then damn! I'm going to live next door to him for as long as I possibly can! I'll even eat greens!

As a sort of P.S., I had a funny dream Friday morning, one of those when I went back to sleep for a bit. Dreamt Charlie & me & all you who've been following this were running along a street, giggling & laughing & shushing each other. We got to a place, all got quiet, Charlie, knocked on a door. It opened, didn't see a face just "someone"--but we all barked! I'm quite sure it was the mean old neighbor we barked at.

I can just imagine his face, lol...

The best thing that can happen is for this to all go to court. Everything will come out there, including that wacky council quote about my mother needing counselling.

So, with that in mind, the next time some council official knocks on my door I have several different reactions for them.

"That? Oh, no... that's not a dog. It's a Parrot."

"Barking? There hasn't been any barking here. Oh, wait... yeah, that was me and the boyfriend... Sorry about that."

Invite them in, sit them down in my by now Lovecraftian "ashes" room, and keep them talking for at least two hours about the different plot lines of American Horror Story, offering them nothing but a weak cup of tea and a plain biscuit. (I have developed a strange and twisted sense of humour over the years)

Respond to every knock at the door (including theirs) with loud repetitive cries of: "There's someone at the door! There's someone at the door!"

I'm also having lots of fun now writing to the Ombudsman...

Lovecraft, eh? I don't imagine many people have heard of him...