the Anna fiasco

so yesterday 4:30am my mobile nearly gives me a heart attack. It's
Anna - the neighbour who used to keep pigs here, still keeps her zillion bottles of pickles in our wine-press room and was going to look after our place while we were gone... she's screaming at me, that Gus killed 25 of her fattened ducks... so I walk outside still a bit worse for wear - Gus is right there, not even wet (it was raining all night) and no sign at all of the alleged massacre. Not a dot of blood/mud, anything at all. I go over - they still hysterical and don't want to hear about looking at the spotless dog. Besides, whatever did in their ducks made a hole on the chicken wire at the door (which somebody obviously left open) so it wasn't a dog - a dog would have just jumped that chicken wire which was less than a meter high.
besides that even if Gus somehow got out - which he hasn't done since he were kept here in the front, because he couldn't - he was never clever enough to find his way back if the gates were all closed. Which they were. I am furious. If it was any chance that it was Gus, I would of course fork out whatever Anna demands as compensation. But this seems like that somebody of her staff made a mistake and they want to find somebody who is able to pay up.
(Of course both the people who could be culpable swear that they
saw Gus ("a dog with red collar") to jump a fence a few minutes before Anna rang me... making Gus a wonder dog, who showered and
dried himself, brushed his teeth in a few minutes, besides keeping Bonzo quiet who probably due to jealousy - tend to bark his heart out when Gus has one of his escapades.

Anyway - Anna says she rang the mayor (she did, he rang me and now knows how silly these accusations were) and the police (I don't really think she did, and even if she did, she has no case)
but obviously, we had to look for somebody else to look after the house last minute. Thankfully Timi (the lift-help for us and guests) and her husband Feri are doing it. In a way it is better,
they are internet savvy, which Anna's lot isn't so we can be touch
from that far USA.

So all we needed this pre-trip drama, when, as I mentioned, we are stressed, nervous tummied... never mind... forecast is 26C for Gainesville for Tuesday... Florida, New Orleans, Key West... here we come... I'm taking my lovely Kifli with me, so you might get a few blogs from the US... all packed... off to Budapest tomorrow, flying via Gatwick Monday morning, arriving to Orlando late afternoon, staying in an airport hotel, then Tuesday meeting up Donna, who's picking up the rented car and four of us should arrive to Martin's comfortably for tea - I mean, dinner...