DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: My wife, who’s a photographer, gave me the most beautiful framed Valentine’s Day gift. It’s a big print of a small bird who comes to visit me every day at my big window.

I work from my home office, half days, in the mornings, before heading in to the office. I open the window and leave bird seed for my little visitor just outside on the ledge, and the bird loves it.

My wife’s other thoughtful and loving gift is a new photo of the two of us, which is also up on the office wall by my computer.

I feel guilty now, because I assigned my assistant at my downtown office the duty of finding a Valentine’s Day present for my wife. She quickly came up with the idea of a very nice-looking watch, almost identical to the one she wears. My wife doesn’t wear watches, but I forgot about that and wrapped it up for her anyway.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: People I never expected to hear from again are calling me to pull me back into my old group of drinkers and gamblers. But I realize that old lifestyle got me into so much trouble that I desperately needed rescuing a few years ago. I was headed for a bad outcome — even a complete end.

I know I should never go back to drinking and gambling, although I’m tempted because those people were so much more fun than the sober people I’m surrounded by now. My drinking buddies really liked me and thought I was smart and funny.

Then out of the blue this week, I got a phone call from my sister in Alberta asking me to come and move in with her, saying she has an exciting skiing-related job waiting for me with her company.

But it’s in a different province where I don’t know anybody, and I’m shy. I’m scared if I go there I’ll die of loneliness if I don’t like my sister’s friends. She claims she’s involved with a great group of mostly single people in their late 20s and 30s who ski very well like she does (and like I used to do).

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I’m single and new to Winnipeg, and just bought a great house near a park. I also have a new puppy who keeps me happy.

I love dogs and will always have one or more, but I would like to get back into the dating game again. How soon is too soon to broach the subject of my need for canine companionship with someone I may start dating?

— Unsure of the Waters, Fort Rouge

Dear Unsure: Don’t trust that a new person is going to instantly love dogs just because you do.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: My girlfriend just “offered” to move into my place because it’s so far for me to drive to her place to pick her up and she doesn’t have a car. She does not have a job either, as she’s a full-time university student who gets rides there with classmates when I’m not dropping her off.

I met her through a recreational curling league we’re both in. She is a great athlete and has a medical career ahead of her, but I don’t want to be her sugar daddy in the meantime, and I told her that last night on the phone.

So she called me in a snit today, angry about our chat where she didn’t automatically get her way. She told me to get lost, but not in such polite words. Then she hung up on me.

Have I blown this for good? She may be younger than I am, but she’s the best match I’ve ever had — bright, business-minded and into sports, and sexy in a way I like. It just feels too soon to have her living with me.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: My new wife from up north says she’s crazy about me, but I’m not sure.

We first met online, and then she and I got together in a very big way and quickly tied the knot in November. I’d had enough lonely-guy fever and told her she didn’t even have to work if she didn’t want to.

Then, right after Christmas, two of her female friends from her hometown asked if they could stay in our extra bedroom until they found jobs in Winnipeg.

I couldn’t stand the thought of them living with us for very long, so I got them jobs right away at the business I work at. Now I’m waiting for my wife to help them move out of our place.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I noticed a small truck kept driving around my block just after the holidays The driver looked kind of familiar, but she was wearing a big woolly hat. I finally watched to see where she went.

The truck stopped at the end of my street, then this really tall red-haired woman jumped out, and I knew who she was. In fact, I knew her 100 per cent, top to bottom.

We were crazy teenagers together and had our first sexual relationship with each other. I wanted to run over there and hug her, but instead I phoned some people we both knew and found out she’s single and back in town for a new job.

Do you think she knew she bought a house close to me? Did she possibly do it on purpose? Now what can I do without looking like an idiot?

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: On the weekend my girlfriend and I had just finished having sex, when she said bitterly, “I had no climax, again.” She said she wasn’t going to fake it anymore.

Then she went quieter than she usually does after sex, and it got so tense I spitefully asked her what sex was like with her ex-boyfriend. She said quietly, “It was great, even when it wasn’t Earth-shaking.”

Then she got dressed, grabbed her keys and left in the middle of the night, at -25 C. Since then, she’s just replied to my texts with two- or three-word answers, saying things like, “Just relax” or “Get over it.”

She hasn’t actually broken up with me. I can’t work anything out with her if she’s not talking to me. I’m still half in love with her. What can I do?