So, yesterday I met up with Dustin after work. I got out at 12:30, so we went and had some lunch, then headed over to Lowe's to pick up a new, desperately needed lawnmower and weed-eater. We came home excited to get them put together and start on getting our lawn in shape.
Unfortunately, we came home to both dogs nowhere in sight. He had left them in the yard, like we always do. The house just gets too warm to leave them inside on sunny days. It's never been a problem. Until yesterday.
I'm not sure whether I am totally convinced that they just escaped on their own. They've shown no precedence to do such a thing before. In any event, whether or not they got out of their own will, or someone elses', they were gone. Dustin scoured the neighborhood looking for them. When we got the kids from school, we drove around to the neighborhood on the other side of the trees to see if anyone there had seen them. We left our names and phone numbers with various people in case they spotted them.
Then this morning, Dustin called the Humane Society to see if any dogs were brought in that matched Muttley or Sam's description. They had a dog that matched Muttley's. But not one for Sam. We went in, and sure enough, there he was, scared and excited to see us. But they did not have Sam. This is not a big surprise, since Muttley is much more apt to come up to someone whereas Sam is more likely to just run.
Luckily though, the gal helping us do the paperwork to get Muttley back was able to contact the animal control officer who had picked Muttley up. He told her that he had not seen another dog with Muttley, but had reports that a lady had possession of another dog spotted with Muttley at her house, and a control officer was on his way there to pick her up. We got that officers name and number, and the address for the house, and headed out.
When we got there, there she was! The officer was already there, talking with the lady. She said they had both shown up, having run across a huge field that ran from our backyard to hers (we're talking, maybe a mile across here, if not more). She said Muttley ran away, and so did Sam at first, but then Sam returned alone, scared and lost. She fed her, and got her to come to her. Then she called the Humane Society to let them know she had her.
I was sooooooo incredibly thankful that both were found and both were safe and sheltered from last night's rain! It was hard for me to sleep last night, listening to it pounding on my rooftop, thinking of them both stuck out in it, lost and alone. I thanked the woman who took Sam in profusely.
Even better, we paid nickles compared to what this could have cost us. Since Muttley got brought in after when we could have come got him yesterday, the woman at the shelter did not charge us yesterday's kennel fee. And the officer who met us to pick up Sam said he'll just use this instance as a warning. That's a $120 ticket we're free from right there. All in all, what we were thinking was going to cost us about $300, only cost us just over $60. With the money we saved from that, we are going to build up the fence around the yard so that they are physically unable to jump it or dig under it. Some nice lattice, some chicken-wire for underneath, some planter boxes and flowers for outside... maybe some berry bushes and roses for thorny deterrents. I get a safer spot for the dogs to go, and some more gardening for me! It's win-win as far as I'm concerned.
So, here's to lost dogs found, better sleep, and a negative getting turned into a positive.
Today I felt a bit under the weather. I tried to do a stint on the Wii Fit, but my tummy told me that wasn't going to happen. Instead, I opted out of the computerized exercise in favor of the mountains of outside exercise I knew was to be tackled today.
Dustin and I donned our work gloves, grabbed some shovels, rakes and his Pulaski, and headed out. That garden plot wasn't going to clear and dig itself. So we started digging and rakeing. Dustin wound up grabbing my son and headed to Lowe's for a pitchfork. They also grabbed a pair of gloves for my son. We went back to work raking and shoveling and digging and throwing. It was discovered that the area consisted largely of rocks, so I got the gloves off and bent to the task of picking out all of those rocks and tossing them into a pile.
The entire idea of digging out this enormous area was looming over us as one daunting task. Meanwhile, we could hear our neighbor across the road on his backhoe or with his chainsaw, and by the swearing we would hear issuing from that area, it sounded like he was having a rough time of it. After eating a hearty breakfast of potatoes, eggs, pears and muffins I prepared, Dustin decided to take a break from the arduous task of our yard, and go over to see if the neighbor could use some help.
While I sat plucking rocks from my soon-to-be garden bed, I heard wisps of their chit-chat blown over to my ears by the breezes. Friendly talk of hobbies and other manly chat. I could hear them working together on whatever the neighbor had going on- backhoes digging, chainsaws buzzing, rakes being drug across the rocky ground. Then, I noticed the sound of the backhoe seemed awfully close.. and looked up as Dustin walked into the yard, the machinery right behind him. Apparently the guy was thankful for Dustin's help, and offered to come use his machine to clear our plot area.
I grabbed my gear and got the heck out of the way. I watched gleefully as he maneuvered the machine through the plotted area, clearing out all the overgrown weeds, brush and vines. Now my space is clearly defined, and the pile for compost is enormous! Work that would have been painstakingly long and blistering took him all of five minutes, and now we are able to concentrate on getting the beds themselves defined, and getting them ready for seed.
It is nice to see that there is still such thing as neighbors helping neighbors, and them giving in return. I hope he understands how much that little bit of his time saved us so much back break and sweat. While I do not mind the hard work, I am glad to be able to save my energies for the garden itself. Thank you, kind neighbor!
Just a head's up- this is a rant. A long one.
Some of you have heard me complain about the stupidity of my neighbors, and the problems we've been having with them. I just cannot understand the lack of mental capacity in some people- the urge that drives a 30 year old person to act more like a 2 year old.
For the year that we've lived here, they have complained about us having 3 vehicles. You see, I live in a duplex, and we share a driveway. Now, Dustin use to park his Geo out on the road, until it got keyed and the antenna broken off. That was our "crap" car, so there was no way after that that either of the other ones were getting put out there. And although we cannot prove it, I have a sneaky suspicion that our neighbors had something to do with it. So, back into the driveway it went. We park up against the side of our driveway, to where we literally have to crawl through the bushes to get out of our cars.
Well, that wasn't good enough, so they decided they wanted Dustin to park his jeep in this dirt patch in front of their porch so that they could fit in the driveway (apparently she can't drive.....). They even had the landlord come out and have him park there. No problem, OK. So, he starts parking there, and they start blocking him in, and not answering the door when he goes at 4:00 in the morning to ask them to move so he can get to work. Mind you, he is in the union, and if he doesn't get there early, he misses out on work. There has been more than once that he has missed work because of this stunt.
Regardless, the landlord told him to park there, so he has continued to park there. We put up with them blocking us in, parking in the middle of the driveway to block all of our cars either in or out. Then in November, when they parked in the middle of the driveway, Dustin thought he had enough room to squeeze by, so that we wouldn't be sinking to their level by parking behind them, and he misjudged and scraped the side of their car. Now, we are bad bad folks, and didn't have insurance on the car at that time. He went over to her house, and told her he had hit their car. She slammed the door in his face, so he assumed she had heard. Then a couple weeks later, she comes over pounding on the door asking if we had hit her car........ He thinks she means AGAIN, so says no. Then, upon a couple minutes of thinking about it, realizes maybe she meant the first time, so went and talked to her. Apparently she hadn't listened when he told her that we had hit her, and had just realized the scrape on her car.
Ok, so she was a ditz that time, but we've known this.. so we roll with it. He explains to her and her boyfriend that we do not have insurance to cover it, but he is very much aware that he hit it and he owes for it. He also explains at this time that he hasn't been sent out on any jobs lately, and that money is extremely tight, but he will do what he can. We fill out a paper that agrees we will pay for the car. Everyone around is talking about how they only expect it to be a couple hundred dollars for the work. Well, we can do that no problem. Then, two weeks before Christmas, they bring over two estimates that run around $1500. Now, this is quite a bit more than the couple hundred we were expecting. There is no way that he can afford that right now. He hasn't been sent out on a job since the beginning of October. The next week, the boyfriend comes over and starts yelling at Dustin, saying "It's a week before Christmas- I can't have my girlfriend driving around in a piece of sh@t!". Ok, there is a slight scratch on the taillight, a scuff on the back corner bumper, and a teeny dent you really have to get down and look for to see. Dustin looks at him and says "Yeah, man... it's a week before Christmas. I have 2 kids here. Do YOU have $1500 in your pocket right now??". Dude says some threatening words and walks off.
Later on that month, she comes out and tells Dustin that she paid the deductible on her insurance, so they will be coming after him. Good! he says. He'd much rather deal with the insurance company than them at this point. So we don't talk to them about it while we wait for the insurance company to get ahold of us. Meanwhile, they are still parking like jerks, her boyfriend makes threatening and condescending remarks to Dustin every time he walks out of the house. She even took her own son's outside toys and shoved them under Dustin's jeep at one point.
And I won't even get into how many times we've had to call 911 at 3am because someone is over there banging on their door screaming and cursing.
Then, I get accosted by her mother on my way in from work one afternoon, yelling at me about when am I going to pay for their car. Uh.... we've been waiting on the insurance. She starts yelling that it's not their place, and that we owe them. She says the insurance isn't involved. Well, that's not what we were told, and with the way they've been acting, I wouldn't put it past them that they are trying to pull one over on us.
At some point, she sent her daddy over to talk to Dustin. Of all of them, he seems the most calm and reasonable, thank the gods! Dustin explains to him that he hasn't been to work. He even gave them the Hall's number and told him to call and verify it. He explains to dad that he's not trying to screw them over, but with not working, and not to mention the way they've been acting, he's got his own butt to cover. Dad seemed to not be happy, but at least understand.
Ok.. I think I've gotten off the original path with this thread, but they are so frustrating. Some of their antics include the parking directly behind us so none of our vehicles can get out, or in. She shoved stuff under his jeep, for who knows what reason. At one point we had the Geo out in the road for a tow truck to pick up. The Geo is not registered in WA since it has been broke down since it expired. So, Dustin had a note on it to the police that it was awaiting pick up from a tow company, and the tow company had been having problems getting out to get it, so pick up time was unknown. He came home to catch our neighbor gal taking the note off the car.... The Geo is back in the driveway.
*breathe, breathe, breathe*
Today, my daughter is sick. They are parked directly behind us. We have errands to run. Dustin goes over and asks if they can move their car because my daughter is sick, and we need to take her to the doctor. The boyfriend screams exploitative words at him, and says if we want him to move the car to call the cops. So Dustin comes in and does just that. The girlfriend looked pretty abashed when the police showed up knocking on their door. She moved it. The police told them they were acting like 2 year olds. Next time we have to call for them to move their car, both her boyfriend AND mine are getting arrested. That angers me.
I finally broke down and contacted my landlord again today. He says he will interfere. I just hope this doesn't wind up causing more problems for us, since our lease is up next month. I'm kinda worried about that, since there is no way I could come up with a deposit for another place. But, I'll deal with that if it gets there.
Ok, I feel a bit better. Venting is good for the soul! At least for that part of you that wants to go put bullets in your gun! LOL...