SO. EFFIN. PISSED
Long story, and I'm kind of ranty so this is going to come out as one big clusterfuck of word soup vomit.
On Tuesday, Jer and I walk 3 miles around Miramar Lake with Rika, and my day is starting out so super awesome. On the way home I comment about how things are too good, and that I'm almost afraid to enjoy life right now because something will happen and I'll crash hard from this current high of awesome sauce and universal happy juju. We finish our errands and pick up Rome from MCHS, then head home to wait for Joshua's bus to arrive and drop him off.
When Joshua got home, he swore up and down that he saw our friend Beau walking up our street. Homeslice would not shut up about it and he was pretty convinced that he was right even though Jer and I said, "When Beau visits, he normally asks us first if we're free."
Joshua, being of autistic mind, albeit high functioning, felt the need to wait outside on the lawn just in case Beau came walking up the street. In the process of doing so, he neglected to close the front screen door, which is how the cat snuck out. But more on the cat later. Ten minutes go by and Jer comes back from checking the mail, only to say, "Why is he outdoors with the screen left open?" and I just point to my head and say, "Nothing sinks in, let him have his moment." Joshua comes in a minute or two later, having given up.
An hour later I get a message from Beau on FB and I only happened to notice it because I checked my mobile phone. I'm not at my desk a lot lately.
So I give him my address and he stops by. He asks if he can spend the night because shit hit the fan in Vegas and he needed to get away from everybody a day or two. Typical of me, I ask him if he's murdered anybody or if he's a fugitive of the law, because I don't need the feds up in my shit if you know what I mean. Aiding and abetting a fugitive? Yeah, I'm a great friend to have, but not that great. He doesn't want to talk about what happened, but apparently there was some blowout with his family, whom he had to move back in with due to financial reasons, so he's just cooling his heels. Meanwhile, his sister finds me on FB and asks whether he's safe, if he's distraught, etc. I tell all parties involved that things are stable and well.
Meanwhile, Joshua is ecstatic that he was right all along, and we tell him that yes, it's not that we didn't believe him, but usually when people visit from out of town they give us a heads up first. Since there was none at this time, we figured it was a doppleganger.
The next day, Wednesday, Beau takes off after breakfast to do some sightseeing. He says he'll stop by before going back up to Vegas and we go about our business.
As we're getting ready to leave Jer notices that we haven't heard from the cat yet, and she hasn't mewed at us like she normally does every morning. We search for her and practically tear the place apart while doing so. We clean up a bit and he smooths out her cat litter, saying that if she's hiding somewhere and we can't find her, if she uses the litter box we'll know she's still in the unit. So to get our minds away from that we go for another nice walk around the lake. Three miles later and completely invigorated, we go to some stores, get gas, get home early with hopes of having a nice afternoon romp, but upon returning home not even 10 minutes later, Beau knocks on the door. So that interrupted that idea. Then Jer goes to pick up Rome, I wait for Joshua's bus, and upon returning home Jer takes Rika out for another walk and training outdoors.
And this is where the shit hits the fan.
An hour later Jer comes back, says that as he was walking past my parents' place, they were coming in from the parking lot and they invited him inside for a few minutes. So he complies. While at their place, Mum's going about fussing over Rika, who is now over twice the size we got her at 7 weeks ago (she's about 32 lbs of 14 week old German Shepherd puppy), and not to get too Cesar Millan dog whisperer crap all over you guys, but Mum's projecting the most hyper, skittish, and nervous energy and Rika is responding to this in kind. She asks Jer if she can give Rika some food, and Jer, knowing how my Mother is, said sure, but since it's already in the bowl just let her eat from the bowl. Knowing how my Mum is, she thinks that's gross to let the dog eat from her own plates, so she takes the chicken piece, and using her fingers, stuffs it in Rika's mouth. Upon seeing Rika's teeth, Mum freaks out and hastily pulls her finger away, and in the process of doing so gets a cut. Technically, you can say it's a bite, even though the circumstances are not the classic dog goes grrrr at the human and then goes chomp. My Dad hates dogs, HATES them with a passion, so Mum's trying to hide all of this from Pops cause she doesn't want him to freak out, so she calls me and tells me what happened. I tell her not to worry, clean out the cut, wash it well, and then put neosporin on it and a band aid.
So what does my Mother do? The next day she goes to Kaiser Permanente, tells the doctor she was bitten by her daughter's dog, gets a series of shots, and then the doctor by law calls up Animal Control and reports our dog. So now I've got the County of San Diego Department of Animal Control all up in my shit, and I have to quarantine my dog for 10 days because she's still too young to get the rabies vaccine and I have to observe her health and that of my Mother to make sure neither show signs of rabies. I know this is the law and it's meant to protect people who would otherwise circumvent it, but I am LIVID because I know my dog is not diseased, she has no exposure to other animals that carry it, nor is she left outdoors to come into contact with fleas or ticks that carry the bacteria. My Mum and I have an argument of epic proportions in my dining room because she's trying to convince the dispatcher of Animal Control that it was an accident, and I'm telling her that they don't care, I have to comply with the law, and then she's in my grill yelling at me because "it's up to me whether I want to follow it or not". Meanwhile, this pushes back our trip up to Big Sur by three days, because it's still within the quarantine period, which means the reservations to the camp ground that I set up in February have to be canceled and according to the campground ranger, I can still show up as a walk in but there's no guarantee now that the space I wanted won't be taken up by another person.
Great.
Today Officer Bixby from SDDAS stops by my place to do the official report, and even she commented that she's surprised my Mom even reported it, because while it's the law to do so, she also has had numerous puppies and knows that these things happen. However, I still had to pay a $20 quarantine fee, which she suggested I have my Mother reimburse me for, and now my dog has one strike against her. Three strikes and she's listed as a dangerous animal and the county can sweep in at that point and put her down.
What. The. Fuck.
To say I am livid is an understatement. I am so incensed right now over the stupidity of this situation, and outraged at my Mum, who was yelling at me the other day that I didn't care about her health when I got mad at her for reporting MY dog. She didn't have to implicate me in this, she could have just said A DOG, not MY DAUGHTER'S dog and she still would have gotten her tetanus shot and antibiotic for the cut, bite, whatever the fuck she wants to call it. To try and twist my anger about all of this to mean that I don't care about her health leaves me and Jer completely incredulous over the sheer idiocy of the situation, and the boys are quite pissed off and not very understanding as to why we have to push our vacation back by three days, but it is what it is. I'll comply with the quarantine, but it doesn't mean I have to be happy about this.
I forgive my Mother, but it also doesn't mean that I'll let her around my pet.
Edit: Although I won't lie, if this is the worst that happens to me this year, I'm still grateful to you, Universe and the Powers that be. Please continue to look upon my family well and keep giving us the good juju.
On Tuesday, Jer and I walk 3 miles around Miramar Lake with Rika, and my day is starting out so super awesome. On the way home I comment about how things are too good, and that I'm almost afraid to enjoy life right now because something will happen and I'll crash hard from this current high of awesome sauce and universal happy juju. We finish our errands and pick up Rome from MCHS, then head home to wait for Joshua's bus to arrive and drop him off.
When Joshua got home, he swore up and down that he saw our friend Beau walking up our street. Homeslice would not shut up about it and he was pretty convinced that he was right even though Jer and I said, "When Beau visits, he normally asks us first if we're free."
Joshua, being of autistic mind, albeit high functioning, felt the need to wait outside on the lawn just in case Beau came walking up the street. In the process of doing so, he neglected to close the front screen door, which is how the cat snuck out. But more on the cat later. Ten minutes go by and Jer comes back from checking the mail, only to say, "Why is he outdoors with the screen left open?" and I just point to my head and say, "Nothing sinks in, let him have his moment." Joshua comes in a minute or two later, having given up.
An hour later I get a message from Beau on FB and I only happened to notice it because I checked my mobile phone. I'm not at my desk a lot lately.
So I give him my address and he stops by. He asks if he can spend the night because shit hit the fan in Vegas and he needed to get away from everybody a day or two. Typical of me, I ask him if he's murdered anybody or if he's a fugitive of the law, because I don't need the feds up in my shit if you know what I mean. Aiding and abetting a fugitive? Yeah, I'm a great friend to have, but not that great. He doesn't want to talk about what happened, but apparently there was some blowout with his family, whom he had to move back in with due to financial reasons, so he's just cooling his heels. Meanwhile, his sister finds me on FB and asks whether he's safe, if he's distraught, etc. I tell all parties involved that things are stable and well.
Meanwhile, Joshua is ecstatic that he was right all along, and we tell him that yes, it's not that we didn't believe him, but usually when people visit from out of town they give us a heads up first. Since there was none at this time, we figured it was a doppleganger.
The next day, Wednesday, Beau takes off after breakfast to do some sightseeing. He says he'll stop by before going back up to Vegas and we go about our business.
As we're getting ready to leave Jer notices that we haven't heard from the cat yet, and she hasn't mewed at us like she normally does every morning. We search for her and practically tear the place apart while doing so. We clean up a bit and he smooths out her cat litter, saying that if she's hiding somewhere and we can't find her, if she uses the litter box we'll know she's still in the unit. So to get our minds away from that we go for another nice walk around the lake. Three miles later and completely invigorated, we go to some stores, get gas, get home early with hopes of having a nice afternoon romp, but upon returning home not even 10 minutes later, Beau knocks on the door. So that interrupted that idea. Then Jer goes to pick up Rome, I wait for Joshua's bus, and upon returning home Jer takes Rika out for another walk and training outdoors.
And this is where the shit hits the fan.
An hour later Jer comes back, says that as he was walking past my parents' place, they were coming in from the parking lot and they invited him inside for a few minutes. So he complies. While at their place, Mum's going about fussing over Rika, who is now over twice the size we got her at 7 weeks ago (she's about 32 lbs of 14 week old German Shepherd puppy), and not to get too Cesar Millan dog whisperer crap all over you guys, but Mum's projecting the most hyper, skittish, and nervous energy and Rika is responding to this in kind. She asks Jer if she can give Rika some food, and Jer, knowing how my Mother is, said sure, but since it's already in the bowl just let her eat from the bowl. Knowing how my Mum is, she thinks that's gross to let the dog eat from her own plates, so she takes the chicken piece, and using her fingers, stuffs it in Rika's mouth. Upon seeing Rika's teeth, Mum freaks out and hastily pulls her finger away, and in the process of doing so gets a cut. Technically, you can say it's a bite, even though the circumstances are not the classic dog goes grrrr at the human and then goes chomp. My Dad hates dogs, HATES them with a passion, so Mum's trying to hide all of this from Pops cause she doesn't want him to freak out, so she calls me and tells me what happened. I tell her not to worry, clean out the cut, wash it well, and then put neosporin on it and a band aid.
So what does my Mother do? The next day she goes to Kaiser Permanente, tells the doctor she was bitten by her daughter's dog, gets a series of shots, and then the doctor by law calls up Animal Control and reports our dog. So now I've got the County of San Diego Department of Animal Control all up in my shit, and I have to quarantine my dog for 10 days because she's still too young to get the rabies vaccine and I have to observe her health and that of my Mother to make sure neither show signs of rabies. I know this is the law and it's meant to protect people who would otherwise circumvent it, but I am LIVID because I know my dog is not diseased, she has no exposure to other animals that carry it, nor is she left outdoors to come into contact with fleas or ticks that carry the bacteria. My Mum and I have an argument of epic proportions in my dining room because she's trying to convince the dispatcher of Animal Control that it was an accident, and I'm telling her that they don't care, I have to comply with the law, and then she's in my grill yelling at me because "it's up to me whether I want to follow it or not". Meanwhile, this pushes back our trip up to Big Sur by three days, because it's still within the quarantine period, which means the reservations to the camp ground that I set up in February have to be canceled and according to the campground ranger, I can still show up as a walk in but there's no guarantee now that the space I wanted won't be taken up by another person.
Great.
Today Officer Bixby from SDDAS stops by my place to do the official report, and even she commented that she's surprised my Mom even reported it, because while it's the law to do so, she also has had numerous puppies and knows that these things happen. However, I still had to pay a $20 quarantine fee, which she suggested I have my Mother reimburse me for, and now my dog has one strike against her. Three strikes and she's listed as a dangerous animal and the county can sweep in at that point and put her down.
What. The. Fuck.
To say I am livid is an understatement. I am so incensed right now over the stupidity of this situation, and outraged at my Mum, who was yelling at me the other day that I didn't care about her health when I got mad at her for reporting MY dog. She didn't have to implicate me in this, she could have just said A DOG, not MY DAUGHTER'S dog and she still would have gotten her tetanus shot and antibiotic for the cut, bite, whatever the fuck she wants to call it. To try and twist my anger about all of this to mean that I don't care about her health leaves me and Jer completely incredulous over the sheer idiocy of the situation, and the boys are quite pissed off and not very understanding as to why we have to push our vacation back by three days, but it is what it is. I'll comply with the quarantine, but it doesn't mean I have to be happy about this.
I forgive my Mother, but it also doesn't mean that I'll let her around my pet.
Edit: Although I won't lie, if this is the worst that happens to me this year, I'm still grateful to you, Universe and the Powers that be. Please continue to look upon my family well and keep giving us the good juju.