2025

Better late than never

I have been trying to write this since early December. Once again I’m trying to take my own advice: Just do it.

When 2025 began, I had a dog.

This guy, Tam Lin

When 2025 ended, I had a dog. It was not the same dog.

This girl, Nami. She looks twice as big as she is.

When 2025 began, I was living in the same rented studio apartment I’d lived in for 18 years.

When 2025 ended, I was living in a different town, in the first house I’ve ever owned.

Me, sitting on the front step of the house I just bought (gulp), Nov. 5, 2025 (Guy Fawkes Day — yes, I noticed).

In mid-May I had to have my beloved Tam put down. He’d bitten someone, but it wasn’t that person or the town’s animal control officer (ACO) who demanded it. It was my landlady. In mid-April she’d said he had to be gone in a month. Faced with that deadline, I was unable to find either him or myself another home.

Martha’s Vineyard being a summer resort, housing is hard to come by at any time, but with summer approaching, it’s impossible. Thanks to the sale at the end of December 2024 of a family property of which I was a beneficiary, I had the wherewithal to actually think of buying something. I started looking.

Three months later, landlady kicked me out. I already wanted out, but on my terms. She tried to jack the monthly rent up $1,000 each for my last two months. I didn’t pay it. No rent collectors have come to call.

Thanks to the efforts of my real estate agent (blessings upon you and all your friends and relatives, Fran Agnoli!), I slowly figured out what I was looking for. I found it. By the end of November I’d moved in. Things are taking shape quite nicely, but OMG as a first-time homeowner I’m here to say the learning curve (I just mistyped “curse”) is steep.

I knew there would be another dog. I wasn’t expecting so soon. I wasn’t expecting so young.

But along came Nami, full name Tsunami (watch out, world!), a Siberian husky who was all of eight months old. She’d found her way to Martha’s Vineyard from New York City, and yes, indeed, she has a story.

Three weeks or so ago, when it was still 2025, she moved in.

I’m leaving a lot out. Despite the crazy going on in the U.S. and the wider world, I’m looking forward to 2026. Nami and I have got this, with plenty of help from our friends.