Distressing Dog Daze
I went this past weekend, with Eric and Dad, to check on the house that my cousin's moving out of. The idea was to take a look around and figure out exactly what needs to be done before we can move in. I figured that there's going to be a lot to do, but I was not prepared for what I saw.
My cousin paid his rent up to the end of January, which is when he said he'd be fully moved out. When we went to see the house we couldn't even make it inside because he had left four of his dogs in the house. ALONE. The front yard and side walk way are covered in poo; it all smells terrible. The dogs were at the window clawing and crying for attention. The poor things are covered in their own feces and completely matted. I recorded a video of them on my phone. The neglect is definitely illegal and morally awful.
Click to viewI told my mom to call my cousin and find out what the hell was going on, but he had already been ignoring everyone's calls. We forwarded the video to my aunt (his mother). She told us that, apparently, he'd sent a check to pay for one more month and was coming to LA (from his new house in Palmdale) every two days to feed and give water to the dogs. I'm assuming cleaning up after them, and giving them some love and affection, is not at the top of his priorities because these poor dogs are a mess. It's been incredibly difficult not to call the cops about this.
I'm not sure what to do. I can't just stand around and ignore it, but my cousin only listens to his wife who's not one of my favorite people in the world. (The woman tried to start a rumor when I was a kid that my dad is not my biological dad... as if we don't look exactly a-like.) There's absolutely no way he's getting his deposit back, and I'm sure even that won't cover the damages. When he was a regular tenant, he never called to have anything fixed. I heard from my aunt that the roof at the back of the house either collapsed, or is just in terrible condition, and they just put a tarp over it. Meanwhile the bathroom and back storage room are rotting away...
The damages are fixable, but those dogs are haunting me. I'm considering giving him an ultimatum that if he doesn't come rescue these dogs, I will. I don't care if I end up covered in shit myself by the time I'm done cleaning them, but that is absolutely horrid treatment of an animal.