The Dog Whisperer
I was looking for a way to save some money because my one bedroom apartment, although nice, was getting entirely too expensive. So I went on Craigslist and I found a really nice place that was in a fantastic location for a great price. Within a few weeks, I was all moved in. There were two girls living there although one was always at her boyfriend’s house and the other girl had a completely different schedule so it seemed like a perfect situation. I didn’t realize everything that I had signed myself up for.
The girl who was never home is a dog breeder. She has dogs constantly coming and going from the house, in addition to the ones who live in the yard. Now, I love dogs and have two of my own and I enjoy having tons of dogs around. But I didn’t realize I was agreeing to care for her dogs. She’ll stop by for maybe 10 minutes every few days to pick up stuff in the yard and check their food and water levels and that’s it. Keep in mind, this is her only job so who knows what she does with the rest of her time. They do always have food and water and they aren’t neglected, only because of my other roommate and I.
I’ve also had to help four dogs give birth because my roommate was nowhere to be found. The last time, she was out of town and didn’t even stop by until the following day despite getting back in town that night. And she didn’t even care. She makes more money than I do, for much less work. Who needs to do their job when they can get their roommates to do it for free? Her boyfriend lives three miles away so its not like she’s far. If he doesn’t come over with her to do her dog care for all of 10 minutes, he is calling and texting her constantly the whole time. Separation anxiety much?
I’ve now been given 30 days to move out because my dogs “lunge at the fence at pedestrians walking by.” My roommate has been told by the landlord that she can only have four dogs so I don’t know what she is going to do. There are currently 8 of her dogs plus my two.
That really sucks because as much as you don’t want to do her job for her, you can’t very well let her dogs go hungry. If you are getting evicted for your dogs’ behavior, she should also get kicked out for exceeding the dog limit!
Call the SPCA on her when you leave with your puppies. You should sue because I think you did her job for her _and_ had to pay for rent. That’s not fair.
You need to call Animal Control on this chick!
So you helped somebody run a puppy mill. Congrats.
Goodjob, what alternative would you have suggested?
I’m with GoodJob. If your roommate isn’t caring for her animals you call animal control. Last I checked most dogs need to go outside.
I’m not saying you can’t agree to help out, but if its just assumed you mention it a few times then you call animal control
Mystic_eye, Kelly and I are all on the same page.
Kudos for feeding the dogs at least, but I think a call to the RSPCA is definitely in order.
Something tells me she doesn’t meet any of the qualifications a proper breeder should; giving a flying fuck being the least of the requirements. Do the dogs have papers, at least a medical history that says they’re unlikely to pass on serious hereditary defects? :/
Animal control won’t do anything unless the animals are being denied food and water or have obvious signs of abuse or neglect. Just because someone isn’t always home to give their dogs an ideal level of attention does not mean its classed as animal abuse or neglect. I’ve called animal control on far worse and basically been told they can’t do anything.
Jade, I think the issue is communicating with the MVWRM that you WILL call animal control on her neglect of the animals.
But I think the issue with most MVWRM is communication — whether they are even listening much less the “poor victim” is even speaking up.
Yeah, she had to help these dogs. The shelters will not take them. I guess she could have ignored them like you would have done. That’s SO much better. Please think about what not “helping the roommate” would have done, you may want to change your response.
Please note that animal control was contacted as well as anyone else that I could think of. Didn’t do anything, she’s still there and doing her thing. Or not doing her thing, as one might say. I looked into all kinds of legal things but the state that I live in doesn’t have rules about breeding or even limits on the number of dogsn a household. I even tried getting the HOA involved and last I knew, there were hundreds of dollars in violations for her because of the HOA. I don’t understand why the landlord hasn’t evicted her yet. Also, I waited to contact animal control until I was out of the house because I didn’t want to risk having my dogs be included in the neglected dog catagory.
Also, these dogs did not have papers and I know for a fact that her main breeder male has some mysterious illness that was never able to be diagnosed so who knows what defects were being passed on into those thousand dollar puppies she sold to people.
I didn’t have any options and its not like I was wanting to help run a puppymill. I lived there less than 3 months and I tried to do what I could to keep the poor dogs from being neglected.
You found a place at a great price; clearly the price was being knocked down to compensate you for doing work there. Trying to feign ignorance–did you or did you not check out the place beforehand?
Anyway, SPCA won’t do anything unless it’s requested by someone with authority. If they took away every animal that they got calls about, then people would call them to take away any dog/cat that they thought was “irritating”. eg You yourself have two dogs that someone finds irritating, imagine if they could be taken away because someone simply called up SPCA.
As for the solution to this problem; since the girl is only around for 10 minutes a day, you should go and sell the dogs yourself. You can share the money if you want.