Fuck People!!
I woke up the other evening, I opened my front door to let the dogs out, and my gate was wide open! Normally, I keep the gate "fake-locked". I have a chain that goes around the gate, and a padlock, but I rarely push the lock shut. It's a pain in the ass to take my keys out every time I want to go in our out of the gate, and it's usually plenty closed up enough to keep away Mormons, sales-people and other unwanteds. Even friends respect this barrier, and stand at the gate or on the sidewalk at the fence unless invited in. So, somebody was here and rude enough to take the chain off the gate and barge through my front yard up to the door. They must not have knocked very hard, or I would have heard it. I wouldn't have gotten up to answer the door, but I would have heard it.
So I looked to see if anyone left me a note. Nothing by the door. Nothing rolled up and put into the fence. In the mailbox, there is a postcard sized piece of orange paper that says "24 HOUR NOTICE" Further reading tells me "Pursuant to state law, MCLA 1931, 752.21, Section #1, it is a felony for a person to abandon or fail to provide their animal with proper food, water, shelter or protection from the weather. You have 24 hours to contact Animal Control regarding this offense or your dog will be removed." WHAT THE HIGH HOLY FUCK?????
Now, it's true that my front yard is a bit of a mess. I don't have a lawnmower, and the one I used to borrow from my neighbors was stolen last fall. I have an electric weed trimmer, but I'm waiting for money to by string. The grass is getting high, in some spots anyway (my lawn has mange lol). There is a bit of clutter in the yard, and the primer we used a couple years ago isn't holding up so well so the blue trim is peeling. But the house is certainly not abandoned, especially in this neighborhood.
The local slumlord who owns 17 or 18 houses around here does like to call the city and make a regular quarterly complaint about something. He hates dogs, and he's still resentful that we bought this house and he didn't. But he's never called animal control before.
So I call the number on the card. There is a phone menu, and if I know my party's extension I can dial it. There is no extension on the card. There is no answering machine, or voice mail. So I have to wait until 8am. I am all ready to bitch out the officer, because I know my dogs are better fed than me, and healthy. That would have been obvious if the dogs weren't locked inside when they knocked. To my surprise, I'm told that someone has complained about the mess and too many animals, and she made it quite clear that that someone has been inside my house.
Now, I would love to stand in front of the judge, with pictures of my healthy dogs, and make said officer try and prove that tall grass or scattered lawn furniture, or a fence that leans is unhealthy to my dogs. I don't have the money for a legal battle, or the motivation really, but that's not the point.
We don't invite just anyone into our home, no matter how clean. That means that someone who we once considered a friend, has stabbed me in the back for some unknown reason. One of my "friends" wishes me harm, and I have no idea who. So, I have a week to "show progress" on the front yard, and I will be sitting on my knees in the rain pulling out tufts of grass by hand. And nobody comes into my home again. Fuck people.
So I looked to see if anyone left me a note. Nothing by the door. Nothing rolled up and put into the fence. In the mailbox, there is a postcard sized piece of orange paper that says "24 HOUR NOTICE" Further reading tells me "Pursuant to state law, MCLA 1931, 752.21, Section #1, it is a felony for a person to abandon or fail to provide their animal with proper food, water, shelter or protection from the weather. You have 24 hours to contact Animal Control regarding this offense or your dog will be removed." WHAT THE HIGH HOLY FUCK?????
Now, it's true that my front yard is a bit of a mess. I don't have a lawnmower, and the one I used to borrow from my neighbors was stolen last fall. I have an electric weed trimmer, but I'm waiting for money to by string. The grass is getting high, in some spots anyway (my lawn has mange lol). There is a bit of clutter in the yard, and the primer we used a couple years ago isn't holding up so well so the blue trim is peeling. But the house is certainly not abandoned, especially in this neighborhood.
The local slumlord who owns 17 or 18 houses around here does like to call the city and make a regular quarterly complaint about something. He hates dogs, and he's still resentful that we bought this house and he didn't. But he's never called animal control before.
So I call the number on the card. There is a phone menu, and if I know my party's extension I can dial it. There is no extension on the card. There is no answering machine, or voice mail. So I have to wait until 8am. I am all ready to bitch out the officer, because I know my dogs are better fed than me, and healthy. That would have been obvious if the dogs weren't locked inside when they knocked. To my surprise, I'm told that someone has complained about the mess and too many animals, and she made it quite clear that that someone has been inside my house.
Now, I would love to stand in front of the judge, with pictures of my healthy dogs, and make said officer try and prove that tall grass or scattered lawn furniture, or a fence that leans is unhealthy to my dogs. I don't have the money for a legal battle, or the motivation really, but that's not the point.
We don't invite just anyone into our home, no matter how clean. That means that someone who we once considered a friend, has stabbed me in the back for some unknown reason. One of my "friends" wishes me harm, and I have no idea who. So, I have a week to "show progress" on the front yard, and I will be sitting on my knees in the rain pulling out tufts of grass by hand. And nobody comes into my home again. Fuck people.