ROBBING HOOD, OUR DOG ANANA

Her name means “Beautiful in INUIT, was a “master-criminal” when she was a teenager, something like the animal version of Robin Hood of Nottingham forest fame. Following my leg amputation in 2010 we moved into the village “Ghosthouse” a huge old, “Estate Manor house” originally built and owned by an American entrepreneur, Mister George North, in 1884, whose claim to fame was his invention of the classic, American wind-pump. Occupation, of the property, had frequently been marred by several, reports of “supernatural” activities of various descriptions, resulting in it remaining “un-rentable” for several years.

My operation and 7 months, hospitalization bills had cost me my entire business and whatever semblance of an emergency fund I had accumulated up to that point and needless to say, my wife and I were desperate to find affordable accommodation. My best friend, Chris told me about the house and so we were allowed to live there, rent-free as, unpaid, “caretakers”. This was an absolute, Godsend and one of many, such “miraculous” events that enabled me to try and rebuild what we had, had, before my operation, ghosts, or not!

Besides the first “haunting” we had, within an hour of moving in, we reached a kind of impasse, with the resident ghosts not to bother each other, which they never fully honored.

One day, our teen, pup, Anana, came running into the kitchen and dropped a large Avocado in front of my wheelchair. Besides a few teeth-marks, it was fine. The letting agents had told us that there were several fruit trees on the property and to make use of freely, so we assumed that she had gotten the Avocado beneath one of “our” trees. Well, several avos’ later, my wife went out to try and find the tree in question but was shocked to discover that there weren’t any! However, as she was walking back towards our house, Anana suddenly dove through a hole under the concrete fence between us and the neighbors. 

She shouted for Anana to come back, which she soon did, clenching a large Avocado between her teeth! So, the mystery was solved, she was “stealing” them from our neighbors, who had come to see what the commotion was about and met my wife who explained about their, stolen” avocados. They replied that they had seen her taking their avos, but that they were happy and amused by her apparent liking of the fruit. They had far too many to eat by themselves and were happy about her brief avo-foraging trips.