I moved house coming up 2 months ago, after finding mushrooms growing in my apartment.    
  
Not only is the house I moved into a lot drier, it is quite a bit bigger for a similar price of rent, and has a dog who lives over the fence. Since she moved quite some time ago, she has been guarding the house I live in, which meant that I met the neighbours pretty quickly and we exchanged numbers (I was worried about how agitated she seemed to be the first week or so of me living here!).  After offering to take her out one day a few weeks ago, we have come to the most magnificiant arrangement - I'm welcome to take her out whenever I want!



I wfh and work second shift mainly (plus am working on my master's thesis during the day), so I have a lot more daylight time than her family does, so we've been walking for about an hour at a time.  Initially I was struggling with 1.5kms, but I bought hiking shoes and we did just over 4kms today.  Walking with her has done wonders for my confidence (if I'm not assertive in a new/busy place, she tends to get easily agitated), and now I feel like I have a reason to go for a walk.  My weight is trending downwards and I feel a lot happier on the days we go out, and my blood sugar has been a lot easier to manage.  I've been teaching her to have good manners (simple stuff like not pulling on the lead, not jumping up to greet people, and sitting, waiting, and walking slowly when we cross the road) and she learns so quickly!!!

The neighbours dropped off a box of chocolates and a supermarket voucher this afternoon, which was really kind of them, but I feel like being able to take her out is the biggest gift of all.

The dog next door has changed my life