Sometimes I Feel Scared

No, not me.  Well, sometimes I do, but this is not about me.

Isaac and I were coming back in from a walk and a couple of my neighbors were sitting in the community room which is right by the elevator.  Isaac has discovered that now that it is so cold out, people do not hang out on the patio anymore.  During the summer, he always wanted to head to the patio whenever we went outside to check out who was there.  Now that it's cold, he has discovered that people sometimes gather in the community room and he always wants to stick his head in there to see who is there.

This one particular neighbor really loves Isaac.  She lets him kiss her on the face.  She loves it.  Isaac is not a particularly kissy dog, which is OK with me, but he kisses her.   She is an older woman and I'm not sure but I think she might be in the early stages of some sort of dementia or maybe she has some serious mental illness going on.  About half of what she says does not make much sense and I can't tell if she thinks it makes sense or if she's just making up stories or what.  She is very nice, though.

Another neighbor told us he'd heard that someone that lives nearby lost their yellow lab a few days ago but that they finally found it.  The neighbor that loves Isaac said, "Oh, I would feel so bad if something happened to Isaac.  I would feel terribly if I couldn't see  him at least once a day."

I said something like, "Isaac loves seeing you, too," which is true.

Then she said, "Sometimes I feel scared."  And I bet she does.  Sometimes she tells me that people have been trying to break into her apartment, stuff like that, which I feel pretty certain is not true.  I don't know if she's delusional and thinks people are trying to break in when they aren't or what.  I know everyone feels scared sometimes but if she really believes some of the stories she tells me, I bet she is scared a lot.

"Sometimes I feel scared," she said.  "But not when Isaac is around.  I know things are OK when he is around."