Godis in the yellow house

In 2011 we bought the yellow house, our holiday home. We went there no less than seven times a year, and each time we didn’t want to leave. When we could retire in 2015, we were lucky that the house opposite came up for sale, the “red house”. We decided to permanently live in Sweden. We lived in the yellow house for the first two years, a wonderfully cozy home. We slowly renovated the red house.

When we moved, we took our cat Boreas with us. Since he felt lonely after his beloved brother Tobias passed away, we got a cute Swedish kitten for him. Godis, a sweetie, a very lovely cat. Boreas and Godis loved each other very much, but unfortunately, Boreas passed away after only a year and a half.

After two years, the red house was ready. For the next two years, we spent our summers in the yellow house because it was so cozy and our winters in the red house because it was more practical for permanent living. But Godis didn’t want to come with us in the winter; he felt at home in “his” yellow house.

Eventually, we found it more convenient to permanently live in the red house and fully furnish the yellow house as a guesthouse. We had a hard time convincing Godis to come and live with us in the red house. By then, he had already claimed both gardens as his own. Godis lived with us in the red house for two years, but we noticed that he often roamed the garden of the yellow house, and occasionally, he was also inside there, through his cat flap.

That’s when we decided to get a dog. We had dogs and cats together in the Netherlands, and it always went well. We chose a puppy of a lovely breed, a blonde crossbreed Labrador. When little Chubby arrived, 8 weeks old, Godis was not amused. Actually, he was quite angry. We hoped that with a lot of patience, he would get used to it. What we hadn’t expected was that Labrador puppies grow incredibly fast. At 8 weeks, Chubby was even slightly bigger than Godis, and of course, it only got worse. Until one day, our dear Godis attacked Chubby. We had never expected him to do anything like that. We managed to grab him just in time to prevent him from scratching the pup in his face.

We gave up. Since Chubby arrived, Godis barely came inside, only in order to eat. He stayed outside. So we started giving him his food in the yellow house again. Now, Godis lives very contentedly in “his” yellow house, and he finds all the guests nice and enjoyable. Chubby has become our big, sweet dog, who is unfortunately never allowed in the yellow house.