No Furries Allowed

OK, I agree that it's not surprising that Vancouver has changed a lot in the 15, almost 16 years, that I've been gone. Where there were cows there are now apartments. Many of the street signs are now in English AND Mandarin. Most rentals seem to have done away with carpet and are now laminate. And of course, rents have gone WAY up.

But the biggest, and most distressing change, seems to be a Nazi like attitude about pets when it comes to renting an apartment. NO PETS. ABSOLUTELY NO PETS. NO PETS - FIRM. NO PETS ALLOWED. What the heck? Where did this come from? In all my years of living on my own in Vancouver, not once did I have a problem finding a place to rent that took pets. This new attitude is a problem for me. Obviously.

My original plan was to take the rats in the car with me and send for Andy and DeeDee later. My boyfriend would look after them until I got settled and then put them on the plane. It's what I did when I originally moved down here. Except then, my Sammy sat at the kennel because my Mom had like 8 million cats and couldn't take on any more.

Fortunately I have been able to find a home for DeeDee with my boyfriend's ex-wife. This is the best of all options since the boyfriend's two daughters ADORE DeeDee and now she will have four people fawning over her instead of just me. And she'll have a kitty sister, named Josee. I'll be sending money down every month for her care and feeding so I think this is going to work out fine.

Which leaves Andy and the rats. Some of the rats will be coming with me while some will be going back to the rescue. I'm taking the ones that would be the least adoptable. I'm very good at hiding rats. A cat isn't quite as easy. I am at a loss as to what to do about Andy. He is highly unadopt-able given that he's a garden variety brown tabby who is terrified of 99% of the world. He would lose his mind in a shelter. So the search continues for an apartment that will take not only pets but an unemployed tenant. Lordy.