It's been another big week for George.
When we got home a week ago, some scaffolding had appeared on the neighbour's house. This house backs immediately on to our garden. It's very close.
My heart sank. It took us a long time for George to feel relaxed and confident in the garden. Having construction workers so close and the associated noise will be an absolute nightmare.
George was wary of the scaffolding. He is very sensitive to any changes in his environment. But after a little hesitation, he was OK in the garden.
I set the alarm early on Saturday morning so he could have a safe toilet break before it got light. I barricaded the patio doors with the curtains and strategically placed ottoman and coffee tables.
We'd booked a Sniffspot that morning so had a nice morning out, luckily avoiding the neighbours.
I was relieved that there were no workers when we got home.
We got up early again on the Sunday just in case. We later met my friend and her dog for a walk in the cemetery.
George did really well on the walk. I trialled the Sileo (on top of his normal meds) as I am testing it for his upcoming visit to the new groomer.
The cemetery is a good walk as it is big, quiet, and has good line of sight. He only reacted once on the whole walk when a lady in a car pulled over to talk to us.
At one point, there was a big dog barking and an off-leash chihuahua running towards us. The owners were frantically calling it but it kept approaching.
We kept calmly moving away. George was on high alert but didn't react which was truly amazing.
Back home after a big walk and I was very relieved again to see no workers on the neighbour's roof.
On Monday, when George was in daycare and I was in the office, the construction began. They appear to be replacing the roof.
I started researching how long it would take etc - I'm now being bombarded with roofing ads!
It was going to be a few days at least. I decided the lesser of two evils would be to put George in daycare for an extra day or two.
Daycare were fantastic as usual and allowed me to tentatively book him in.
He has never been in for so many days in a row. Each morning he was more sleepy. I felt really guilty. But reminded myself that it is better than him being totally stressed out at home. And he was a little trooper.
On the fifth day, I was working from home so waited until a bit later to take him in. No workers appeared so that was a waste. By early afternoon, there was still no workers so I went to collect George. He was wild with excitement about being picked up early and crashed with tiredness when we returned.
We also had a good friend come and visit this week. George was really pleased to see her, and was playful and cuddly. We all had a nice time.
He's understandably been a bit more on edge than usual this week. He hasn't had the rest and downtime he normally gets.
But on the whole, he's done really well. I'm proud of him.
The workers haven't been there for a few days but unfortunately the scaffolding is still there and it doesn't look quite finished. I am worried that they will appear one day without warning. We will just have to deal with that the best that we can.