Recipe for a less-than-stellar evening

1. Family who has invited us to a barbecue kennels their dog for the evening, citing dog's over-excitability and danger of nipping.
2. Dog-worshipping younger daughter is informed of this at the beginning of the twenty-five-minute car journey to the house and spends the trip in a pall of disappointment, not having seen the dog in two years.
3. Aging mother/mother-in-law of host couple asks me after dinner if I plan to put younger daughter in a group home.
4. I wander off for a solo stroll to weep and regain my equilibrium and wonder in passing if kennelling is this family's solution for everything.

Other than that, our summer stay in Victoria has been quite lovely, thank-you.