Two days ago Pedram was taking a nap when he woke up to me bawling uncontrollably.  In our 5 years of knowing each other, he has never witnessed me crying outloud.  We had been in Montreal for a few days and were nowhere closer in agreeing on our future apartment, finding cell phone plans, a bank that would accept our money, or making friends.  In fact, we have not really talked to anyone except each other for the past few days, which always spells trouble.

In anticipation of the unbelievable warm Montreal summer that everyone RAVES about, a summer so spectacular that the entire population suddenly has short term memory loss of the fierce winters they lived through, a warmth supposedly SO intense that for the first time in my life, I have thought about the necessity of air conditioning at home, I only packed capris and tank tops.  The first day we had torrential downpour that forced us to spend time between coffee shops and coffee shop awnings until we made it back home, completely drenched.  We did not pack umbrellas.  The second day it was clear and cold with severe wind.  I put on no less that SIX layers to try to avoid the wind, layering tank tops and short sleeve and long sleeve shirts and the only sweater I have with a shawl to keep from freezing.  Apparently the phenomenal summer is coming….later.

However, I was not crying for any of those reasons.  I was crying because Marley was dying, and even though I knew it was coming, because everyone who read the book or watched the movie told me so, I couldn’t help but let the tears build up while he was aging, and for the sobbing to commence while reading the final few moments of his life.

Once he figured out why I was crying, Pedram’s compassion turned into more disbelief that I could get so emotional about an animal.  I can’t wait until he develops a strong relationship to a dog and then I’ll shove this book under his nose and say  “now lets see how you hold up”.