Animal House
I found a roommate via Craigslist to share a house during my last year of grad school. She seemed great at first, a little quirky but a breath of fresh air compared to my former roommates. We found two other girls to share a fabulous house, and for the first month, everything was great. Although she took weeks to unpack (and left her crap all over the house), the other three of us overlooked this and were having a great time.
Before we moved in, she was a foster mom for animals and had been caring for a large litter of kittens, but assured us they would be gone before we moved in. They were not, but she then assured us they would be adopted quickly. Aside from peeing all over my blankets on the couch, these kittens had raging fleas, which spread like wildfire through the house to her three dogs and another girl’s cat. She claimed she just “didn’t know what to do” and couldn’t afford an exterminator, so we would just have to deal with it until it got cold. It was mid July. While her dogs had fleas, she would keep two of them locked into one crate, and leave them in the basement while she went out. She wouldn’t come home until the morning and these dogs would bark the entire night in their crates, which happened to be right below my bedroom. I would often have go down there at 3 a.m. and yell at them to stop, to no avail. I still have scars on my legs from the flea bites, over a year and a half later.
Then she lost her job, and while telling us she would get a new one, got a waitressing job which she constantly called out of, making no money. She stopped paying rent and after about two months, the other girls and I realized she hadn’t informed us about the utility she was in charge of, the electric bill. We thought maybe she had been paying it herself and would get the money later. WRONG. Concerned, we called our landlord, who called the electric company, who informed us our electricity was about to be shut off in two days because we had a $500 balance that hadn’t been paid in months.
We decided that was the final straw (her room was a disaster, and she had never cleaned her bathroom once) and kicked her out, but then she proceeded to write psychotic emails to us proclaiming we had all conspired against her and that it was our fault she hadn’t paid the electricity bill. I found out later she had gotten her car repo’ed and was living in a place that smelled like cat litter…
Homegirl is not fit to take care of animals.
About the dogs in the crate: I would’ve been more concerned with their welfare than their barking. I mean leaving two dogs in a single crate in a basement all day? That’s just wrong. OP was a little shallow in yelling at the poor things instead of trying to help them in some way.
Gotta agree there. Poor dogs.
Poor doggies
They should have been placed in good homes, not yelled at to stop. They were barking because they were being tortured. Try rolling in your own shit and piss while you have no room to turn around. Then Have some chick scream at you to shut up so she can get some sleep. Nice. I know you didn’t like being eaten by fleas, but neither did they.
Yeah, shouting at dogs that have fleas and are crated all day long isn’t going to work. You should have called animal protection services, but didn’t? You’re just as guilty of animal abuse as she is.
amazing how often people who can barely take care of themselves adopt animals or breed like rabbits.
So you yelled at the dogs instead of letting them out or calling SPCA to see what you could do about getting them adopted out. Loser.
Should’ve called animal cops instead of yelling at the poor dogs. Moron.
Hi, I’m the original poster. I wouldn’t consider myself guilty of animal abuse, I was well-aware that these dogs were not well-taken care of, and constantly complained to this roommate about how it was unfair to leave her dogs like that for hours. I also watched her dogs when she would go out of town for days, and would not leave them in one crate like that because I knew how awful it was. However, dealing with a nutcase is NOT easy, and although the other roommates and I discussed getting the dogs out of there, we knew she would lose it if we intervened at all. She was completely unstable. And, I only yelled at the dogs when it was 2AM and I was stressed beyond belief about school. To say that I’m guilty of animal abuse is completely uncalled for, and for the record, their crate was not covered in feces and urine. There just comes a point when it is not your business, and the other person is too crazy to deal with.
Two dogs in one crate is always your business. You call the SPCA and tell them the situation with your roommate and they bring the cops. Your excuses don’t pardon you.
Agreed. If you or any of your roomates for that matter, cared at all for animals you would have done something about the situation. You can always call a vet and make payments toward the treatment of fleas. I am sure they would be understanding, and want what is best for the animals and for you. Instead of just getting flea bitten (eww) and trying to “ignore” the situation to be “nice”.
Provided the dogs look to be in good health, have food, water, and shelter; SPCA or animal control won’t do anything. The fleas may at best warrent some form of citation but more than likely the thinly staffed animal control officers won’t do anything in all but the most serious cases. There’s no laws agasint keeping a dog confined to a crate.
pro-tip: People on the internet care more about dogs and cats than anything else. They will not stop short of anything to tell you how you are mistreating animals, for any little misstep you take, eg “You don’t clean the cat litter TWICE a day?”. Your only hope now is to post a picture of you playing with a dog on your couch.
Boy does that make me think of my ex. She was the exact same way, a total nutcase, and I, with my low self-esteem and no other options for a place to live, had to put up with stuff like that for a year.
pro-tip: people on the internet expect you to be a compassionate being who’s smart enough to know that ignoring a situation (or complaining bitterly to your just as useless other roommate) will not make it better. Especially if there are people or animals involved, who cannot fend for themselves.
Oh my god, you’re right, these people are certainly bastards…
Ok, now something potentially useful.
Getting rid of fleas on the (relative) cheap:
1) Give flea-infected animals flea-shampoo type treatments. Follow up with Advantage, or some other type of topical prescription treatment.
2) Buy enough flea bombs for every room. Plan to vacate the house of all things living for 1-2 days. Set bombs off, making sure windows are closed. Enjoy your night at the hotel!
This works. Just make sure all windows are closed when you set off the bombs, and opened, to air out the pestacide when you come home.