#AND i would trust her with my dog

[foldingfittedsheets]

My mom has this awful friend, Cynthia. My loathing goes deep enough that I’m not even going to change her name. If she ever finds this she knows what she did.

On multiple occasions my mom asked this horrible irresponsible chicken brained woman to watch after our animals while we were away. I don’t know why once wasn’t enough, because the first failure was so spectacular that anyone in their right mind would know she couldn’t be trusted with any level of responsibility or direction following.

You might be thinking to yourself, FFS, this level of antipathy is surely unwarranted! But you’d be wrong.

To set the scene, we were living in downstairs of our house when I was about fifteen. My mom has always wanted more animals than can reasonably be kept indoors which is how we ended up with three cats. When she wanted to kick them all outside I protested, and so all three cats lived in my bedroom with no access to the rest of the house.

That really wasn’t great, so in an attempt to give them options we made a window cutout with a cat door in it to give them access to the outdoors. Looking back on this as an environmentally conscious adult it’s wretched, cats should be indoor only, but at the time I was desperate to give them some freedom because one bedroom is too small for three cats.

So my parents and I went on a week long trip to visit family out of state. We told Cynthia to come feed and water the cats, and to scoop the litter box. Most importantly, don’t lock the handle of the door, because we only have the key to the deadbolt.

I’m sure you can see where this is going.

Cynthia locked us out. We arrived home after 12 hours on the road, desperate for the comfort of our own beds. We were met with an unyielding door. With a sigh I volunteered, “I can punch in the cat door and climb in the window.”

I slipped behind the bamboo outside my window and pushed in the cutout. A horrible insidious reek wafted out at me. I paused, prickling with foreboding. But I had a job to do, and by god I’d see it through. I hefted myself up into the window and my hand immediately landed in something wet.

Skin crawling, I pulled myself up and surveyed the darkened room as a miserable odor of decay and suffering poured out of the room around me. I could see dark shapes littering the carpet and it didn’t take a genius to guess that the cats had taken up hunting in a big way during my absence.

I pulled my hand out of the pile of vomit it had landed in and dropped into my onetime bedroom turned now into a hellpit of decomposing wretchedness. I turned on the light. I wished I had not turned on the light.

My eyes scanned across the floor, tallying as they went. Two dead birds, a dead baby rabbit, five dead mice, and one dead snake. I paused on my alarm clock, perplexed to see a stain of white on it. I stepped closer and saw a furtive movement.

The tally suddenly contained also: one live bird that had shit in several places, probably in pure terror to find itself trapped in a room littered with decomposing woodland creatures, which honestly, fair. I coaxed it out the window and finished the survey with five discrete piles of vomit.

I unlocked the door and let my parents in. They exclaimed in disgust at the horrible smell. We stood together in my doorway floored by the magnitude of neglect. The unscooped litter box was a subtle footnote in the tangible reek my living space. I disposed of the parade of ecological disaster, cleaned vomit, and scooped the box after a brutally long day on the road. The cats were fine, and happy to see me. They had a huge dish or food and water so Cynthia’s neglect at least hadn’t harmed them.

Then I slept on the couch while my bedroom aired out, the windows flung wide to dispel the uneasy ghosts of the hunted. I spent the whole night cursing Cynthia’s name for this evil she’d visited upon me. When my mom asked her, "Cynthia, didn't you see the dead animals?"

Cynthia responded, "Yes, they smelled so bad, I just ran in and out as fast as I could." I fully don't believe she did any caretaking, and I'm personally of the opinion that she locked herself out on the first day and never came back.

The next day my room had returned to a habitable level of smellscape and I gratefully crawled into my bed that night. I stretched out and froze as my foot brushed something cold and wet?

The final indignity: one last dead snake, inside my very sheets.

Fucking Cynthia.

[altruistic-meme]

on that note im literally obsessed with the level of trust that Dazai and Chuuya have for each other. like. Chuuya regularly puts his life in danger because he trusts Dazai to stop him before it's too late. Dazai trusts Chuuya to shoot a bullet at his head because he knows that he won't let it hit him. their level of trust goes deeper than anything that Fukuzawa and Mori had or what Atsushi and Akutagawa will ever reach. i literally just can't stop thinking about them.

[beansnpeets]

Made arrangements to do some more grooming at the kennel tomorrow morning before my parents arrive. I figure the dogs will help me to relax prior to their arrival lmao

[scalpelsister]

what if i lost the will to live like. as a joke. what then.

[restinthewest]

I want to share a human-behavior win from the other day.

Hallow and I frequently play at a big open area. There are several open fields and an entrance to a nearby dirt walking path. It's not a busy area but it’s common for people to play with their dogs/walk with them off leash there.

The other evening I was playing with Hallow at one of the fields that borders the walking path. I could see a man and his two off leash dogs that we've seen there before; they've never paid us any mind. They were walking towards the field that we were playing in to access the walking path; I walked with Hallow towards the far end of the field and as they came into the immediate area, I called Hallow to come stand between my legs (two reasons for this- one, to signal that we weren't interested in interacting, and two, to make the other person comfortable/signal that my dog was under control).

We waited for them to hit the walking path, at which point they started following it the other direction and were walking away from us. They were very far away at this point- about 200 yards. Once they'd started walking in the other direction I released Hallow and began throwing her ball for her. I think this is where I messed up- I should have waited until the other owner was out of sight to start throwing the ball. I heard yelling and saw that one of the dogs- a sheltie/collie thing, was trotting in our direction and the owner was trying to call it back.

I immediately had Hallow drop the ball and I put her in a down to make her less visually interesting (I think the ball/the movement was what got the other dog excited). And we just waited. The other dog stopped about 100 yards away while the other owner continued to call and run after the dog- and finally decided to go back to the owner. Had the dog come all the way up to us I would have released Hallow to greet it. Luckily it didn't get that far!

Once the owner had his dog leashed I gave him a big smile and a "thank you" wave. He waved back. He obviously cared about what his dog was doing and I'm certain that if we ever run into them again, he will leash his dog in advance or otherwise make sure the dog doesn't come up to us- and I'll know to not throw the ball when they're around.

I'm proud of myself because when I got Hallow as a puppy, I seriously underestimated how completely unhinged I had become about other dogs due to owning Jackalope. I was having full blown, uncontrollable meltdowns about unwanted dog interactions. If this had happened three years ago, I would have been yelling at the guy to get his dog (even though he was trying his best), yelling at the other dog, doing anything I could to keep it away, generally making a big scene. Hallow does have concerns about unknown dogs, but she generally does fine when allowed to handle the situation herself, and me having a meltdown does not make things better for her. I'm glad that I've healed and can handle these situations calmly and with a level head.

[nooomagnus]

Help I need to go to bed but my dog is resting his chin on my leg what do I do

[maamlet]

then again if i died in a year id have to figure something out for ash bc i do not trust anyone currently in my life to take care of him. but then again thats where the emotionally fulfulling relationships aspect comes in i reckon

[sugar-coated-saphic]

Wiener dog- body language

[thefearwithin]

Mythoscember Day 28 - Monoceros

Unicorn! Goat-eyed, cloven-hooved unicorn! Aka what unicorns were meant to look like, apparently

And of course I couldn't just make it pure white, because if 2019 Jade and I have anything in common, its that we will always overcomplicate things at every turn

But hey

She's a good gal

I trust her

(also, I accidentally gave her moon hooves.)

[caracello]

god said 'i have faith in you.' I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[coloursofaparadox]

mm

[doebt]

Idk how i missed these

[b-rainlet]

Cannot watch 'cute cat videos' on here anymore because they either a. Endanger the cat or B. Endanger a prey animal that is being forced to interact with the cat

[teals33r]

Ok super powerful reality-bending dog. Just prototype yourself I guess. I'm sure this will have no negative consequences whatsoever

[twowink]

wait im going to my best irlf riends house tomorrow im so excited awiiaauauuau

[piplupod]

man i want a dog so bad rn almost solely so i can have a buddy to go walking with (and also a bit of extra motivation to get out for walks)

i would ask around the neighbourhood to see if anyone wants their dogs walked but 1) thats scary, 2) i would probably not be able to just go for a walk whenever i feel up to it and it'd be a hassle sticking to a schedule or texting/calling them any time i want to walk their dog, and 3) i dont think dogs would like that very much.

"hi im a stranger that u have never met before. i am now going to take you away from your family and walk you around the neighbourhood that u probably have never seen much of bc almost nobody in this neighbourhood walks their dogs, and you will be taken out of ur houes in a way that u cannot escape from or say no to. also you have likely not been socialized so if we come across a rare other dog-walker, i'm going to struggle to get you to not freak tf out at the sight of another dog."