Our Landlord Called Us Today...
Apparently one of the new tenants in our building called our landlord with complaints about us. S/he told him that we don't clean up after our dogs, that she is worried they live in "cramped living conditions", aren't getting enough exercise, and aren't adequately taken care of.
This irritates me for a couple of reasons. We do clean up after our dogs. We also clean up after everyone else's dogs. Sometimes our dogs are on our back patio because Charlie REALLY enjoys the cooler weather and likes laying outside watching birds and people and cars go by, but they certainly are not on the back porch all day (maybe an hour at a time, because I can't get Charlie to come inside).
Our apartment is twice the size of the apartments below us because we're on the top floor and have a loft. But regardless of apartment size, we exercise them by taking them on long walks and also once a week take them to our friend's house who has acres upon acres of land and our pups and his pup have all that room to just RUN till their hearts content.
And they aren't adequately taken care of??? This just blows my mind!! Talk to any of my friends or family, I am ALWAYS teased for spoiling my pets! In fact just yesterday we drove to Springfield (45 minutes away) for dog food and everyone asked "why can't you just go to walmart; its a 5 minute drive away". Because I want the best for my pets and it just is not available anywhere around here. We have dog toys all over the house and buy more all the time!
The reason this irritates me the MOST though... there are only two other people living in this apartment building besides ourselves. There is a family that has been living here for a couple of months now and I know if they were going to say something they would have called already (that, and I know they are over the city limit for the number of people that they have living in their apartment, so why risk getting themselves in trouble also?).
There is a lady who JUST moved in last week who also has a medium sized dog that actually kind of looks like a smaller Aussie or an Aussie/sheltie mix. I was outside walking Jamie and Charlie together (as I always do) two days ago and her dog runs up and gets Jamie excited. I had trouble calming her down and getting her to sit without trying to run off or pull on the leash. So it probably looked as though they were untrained. :rolleyes:
Please note: her dog was OFF LEASH.
I believe this woman is who called and complained to us. She also told our landlord that we have two large breed dogs when neither dog is more than 45 pounds (40 at most; they are kind of smaller for an Aussie).
Also I have to throw this in. I started a new job (the reason why I have not been around at all) and the first two weeks I worked 185 hours. Yes, 185 hours. That's 90+ hours per week (the paycheck was pretty sweet). Now I am averaging more around 65 hours per week, but then when I was hired I was called at 9am for an interview, hired, did a drug test, and started the job that very same day. We had NO warning or I would have kenneled my dogs (HJ and I work at the same place so we were gone the same amount). We have no family or friends who live here who could have taken them or stopped by to walk them for us. The only friends we have here also work at the theatre with us so lol.
I felt HORRIBLE about the first two weeks of work, the dogs were in the crate for 15+ hours a day. We would get one hour break, if we were lucky, and traffic was SO BAD there was no way we could make it home and back in time to clock back in to work (it is a very busy season here in Branson for Christmas).
Anyway so if that is what the lady was referring to, the busiest part is over and we are spending a LOT more time at home now. They are not in the crate a second longer than they need to be, and next year when tech week comes around I WILL be kenneling the dogs because it's unfair to them. I just had NO warning of it!!!!
So... I'm frustrated. We might lose our apartment because our landlord claims we only told him we had one dog when HJ stated clearly, many times, that we had TWO. So... I don't know what to do! Our apartment is clean, does not smell like dog (we had a friend come over who hasn't been over in a few months and asked him how it smelled), the dogs are clean, healthy, and well taken care of. This honestly HURTS me that someone would call and complain. I can lose my apartment over this!!! Our lease is up in February, anyway.
But at the same time I am happy that someone cares enough about animals that they would call and voice their concern to someone. But only IF their intentions were for the best interest of the animals and not because they like getting their nose into other people's business.
But... SHE DOES NOT LEASH HER DOG, and has nerve to complain about us.
:(
