Black Doggerel

I've come to a decision about my baby Max. He is going to have to go. But - and it's a biggish but - he's not going to the other end of the country to join the Forces. I'm getting out my phone book and ringing all my doggie contacts and I'm going to find someone local for him. I can live without him living in my house, but I can't live without him altogether. And I'm starting today, since I'm still locked out of TBBS...

And since everyone was nice enough to nag me about it - Mum's out, so I can't get to the pharmacy today unless I drag the Black Pack with me (and I'm not doing that, Spike is a pain in the arse on buses), but I've phoned them, the prescription's ready to pick up and I'm going tomorrow. I'm also going to the Clubhouse (which is near the pharmacy) to talk to their careers guy about just how I go about getting hired for a job - any damn job - without lying about my past; which I couldn't get away with even if I wanted to, given that it includes a criminal record...

The Clubhouse is a sort of meeting place/halfway house for ex-junkies, funded by the Council and run by Bournemouth Churches housing Association. I used to hang out there a lot in the early days before I discovered the wonderful world of the Internet, but I haven't been there much in the past year - they don't allow dogs, for one thing, and also they're located in the hell-district known as Boscombe... if you knew Bournemouth this would inspire a hollow laugh, because Boscombe is the shitty part of town where all the crack houses are. When you see a cubicle in a public toilet occupied in Boscombe, the chances that someone's actually peeing in there and not just trying to find a viable vein in the dim, blue light are pretty low. So, for obvious reasons, it's a part of town I avoid... Fortunately, after two years' clean time, nearly all the people I used to hang with are either dead or drifted away - one or two of them even managed to get clean themselves. So at least I don't get recognised and greeted by the grey, twitchy, runny-nosed faces waiting by every phone box any more, but it's not a very pleasant experience all the same...