The Twilight Bark

You'll only understand the title if you remember watching Disney's 101 Dalmations (the classic animated version). The twilight bark is the term used for the way the dogs communicate...Pongo barks, another hears and passes it to the next, and so on all the way down the line to the General. While this may have worked in the days before the telephone and internet, is it really used now? Well....I can say it still works today.

Something that took me by surprise when I first moved here was how close the houses were to each other. Where is the space? Where is the privacy? I felt as if I might suffocate. I'm not sure Willie understood why the lack of space bothered me so much until he came to Nova Scotia. As you drive down Highway 289 on the way to my home, songs like "Born Free", or "Wide Open Spaces" or "Lonely" may enter your mind. There are cows, fields, a few houses, more fields, etc etc. You get the picture. Lots and lots of space, quiet and privacy. I think the space made Willie a bit uncomfortable at first.

Back to the twilight bark....well, the human version comes in handy here. Why bother phoning someone when you can go out onto the deck and yell next door? I giggle every time I hear "Willie" or "Noora girl" floating over from behind the hedge. It's equally easy for Willie to yell "Hey Brenda, get up" to his mom (as a joke, of course). And it's quite difficult to sneak around in the mornings. The second or third day back on Haida Gwaii we were sneaking around in the morning, enjoying the quiet after the ambush of family, and we BLEW it by calling the cats in for their breakfast. We froze as we heard "Oh, hey, you're up. Nooooooooora. How's my girl?" Damn, damn, damn. Ah well....we got some breakfast and a coffee out of it!

So being really close to your neighbours is good and bad, depending on the situation. Even though we're so close, it still feels private where we are now..not like our house before! I'm pretty sure the neighbours got a few good shows up in the heights. What can I say? I'm used to privacy...and walking around in undies!