The Verse-Flexor Household: Week 4

On the upper floor of this apartment building, we have two Sims living together who share a lifetime want no Sim has ever reached in my game:

DJ Verse...

...and Max Flexor. They both want to have 20 best pet friends at the same time. (You can click here for their previous week.)

At the moment, they have five dogs, four of which I can show you in this picture: Bailey (the small one DJ is playing with), Alegra (brown dog to the far left), Tommy ("talking" to Alegra), Heidi and Vonny (mother and daughter who look so much alike I can not tell them apart).

DJ starts off the week by giving Alegra a bath. She has five best pet friends, while Max has only two so far. 
The apartment itself is certainly spacious enough to hold two Sims and five dogs, but the layout of the building is impractical, what with either a dog or a Sim always blocking the stairs, and all the amenities being quite far apart. Therefore, the couple decide to move to a place of their own. The house does not have to be big or glamorous, but they need enough surrounding space for dog houses to be set up and for the dogs to run freely. Actually, it is amazing that their landlord or the other tenants never said anything about them having so many dogs!

This small house suits their needs perfectly. It once belonged to an elderly couple, Herbert and Faith Goodie. Maybe you remember that Herbert Goodie was a Good Warlock who taught Matthew Hart "the trade".

Herbert's and Faith's tombs are in the backyard under the willow tree, two of the few that were never transferred to the cemetery.

Darren Dreamer, Kent Capp and Stephen Tinker show up to check out their new neighbours. Mr. Humble, by the way, does not deliver his usual gift of a new computer.

Tom is not the friendliest of dogs in the first place, let alone when three strangers turn up at once! He keeps chasing poor Darren, until the man has enough and leaves.

Their first night at the new house was well spent, as Max' and DJ's thoughts show the next morning over breakfast!

It is a beautiful day, and Max decides on his own accord to fly the kite they brought with them from the apartment. He has made his 3rd best pet friend a little earlier in the shape of Bailey, the small black dog.

The couple is very much in love, but neither of them have yet rolled a wish about getting married.

In the evening, DJ befriends and adopts Webster, their sixth (and last) dog.

Another stray, Balin, is befriended, but can not be adopted because the household has reached its limit.

It's been another good night for DJ and Max - just look at DJ's face while she is having a bath on Wednesday morning!

With the onset of autumn comes the task of raking leaves.

The dog DJ is giving a treat to here is none of her own. It is Jack, the dog belonging to Pablo and Paolo Prezioso, the two teenage boys you can see standing near the mailbox.

This night, for the first time a ghost appears. Maybe Faith Goodie is unhappy about her tomb not being at the cemetery with all the others.

She does try to scare Max, who has just prepared Mac and Cheese for the Prezioso boys and pretends to be really frightened - but can't suppress a smile at the sight of the dear elderly lady who would not harm a fly in life, and certainly not in death either.

Thursday is a rainy day, but that does not stop Max from spending most of the time out with the dogs. He makes his fourth best pet friend in Alegra.

When Geoff Greenman walks by, he is politely greeted, and instantly the dogs take advantage of yet another Sim willing to play with them. Looks like they are queuing to all have a go!

Very oddly, at 4.30 pm, Herbert Goodie's ghost appears. Well, I saw what happened just moments earlier: during a thunderstorm, lightning hit the tombstone, and apparently that brings forth its ghostly occupant. Can't say I have ever noticed that happening before!

The rain has stopped, and I tell DJ to burn the piles of leaves she has been raking up for the past hour or two. Whenever I do this, I realize there is a high probability of one or more Sims losing their lives. At first, it looks as if the fire will die out as quickly as it started.

Then, DJ catches fire, and so does the tree.

DJ dies in the flames, helplessly watched by Max, the dogs, and Geoff Greenman. She was four days from Elderhood and had achieved only 1/4 of her LTW.

All of a sudden, half of the yard is ablaze!

Every time it looks as if the fire will die out now, it starts afresh; now the dog house bursts into flames.

Again, the fire seems to abate somewhat.

But by now, Max, too, has caught fire, and dies. He was a lot younger than DJ, having 17 days left before Elderhood, and had reached only 1/5 of this LTW. Geoff leaves shortly afterwards.

Now only the dogs are left. Look at the gruesome sight of the place! Piles of ashes and dirty dogs everywhere, howling with hunger and grief.

When the Police Officer arrives to take the poor dogs away, he looks rather grim. He certainly does not get to see anything as sad and horrible as this every day!

The dogs all get into the car to be taken to the pet adoption center, while the officer checks the property to make sure none is overlooked. 
And so what was supposed to be a week filled with dog-related activities for Max and DJ comes to a rather sad, dramatic and unexpected end.