About a Dog

So my roommate is the nicest person that I know, and that means on occasion I have to be a nicer person than I plan on being. I'm a cat person. I like my roommate's dog but to me dogs are too attention starved and have to be walked too frequently to make ideal pets.

Over a month ago was the first time I head Diesel’s name, it was attached to a deadline that if someone didn’t find Diesel a home in the next two weeks he would “Be killed.” No details on how that would happen, only that it would.

As it turns out that Diesel is a pit bull suffering because of the selfishness of one of Charlie’s co-workers teenage daughters. She apparently bought Diesel in secret with her boyfriend during her senior year of high school. She had to adopt Diesel in secret because her mother is deathly allergic to dogs. The relationship did what most high school relationships do when high school ends, it ended as well and the guy didn’t want Diesel. Someone he ended at some guy’s house for over a year where he was underfed and the pads of his paws were scabs. Also he wasn’t neutered because the teenage girl felt his balls, and the aggression and sexual desire that comes with them, “Made him special.”

So we found a non-profit that did the surgery at cost or below and that has allowed us to list him with a few rescue shelters, but other than that we’re not much closer to finding him a home.

Diesel is an American Pit Bull Terrier which means he carries all of the fear and misunderstanding that comes with the word Pit Bull. He really is a sweet dog, but he scares people, and it’s not his fault.

With every day that passes I’m getting more pissed off at this girl I don’t know. Had she adopted say a Lab, or Shitzu, we wouldn’t be having this issue because it’s easy to find those breeds homes. But because she wanted a Pit it’s a lot harder to find a home for him. If we just put him up on Craigslist we’d be swamped with people who want to fight him.

He’s listed with a few rescue societies and several pleas have been made for a home on Facebook but nothing’s come of it, and I don’t expect anything to. One thing that I’ve learned from running a non profit is its very difficult to find people who are willing to do more than write a note of encouragement on Facebook.

I’ve been growing more resentful of the girl that started this whole thing this week. The roommate is on vacation this week and I have to re-arrange my days so that I can be home to take care of her dog. She hasn't even reached out at all to say, "Thanks for fixing the problem that I created with my own selfish behavior, let me financially compensate you for the disruption to your lives that I have caused to you, a total stranger. In fact I'm not even going to ask for your contact information just to even send you a short email thanking you for your effort on my behalf. I'm pretty, so I'm used to people doing things for me just because of that and I totally don't appreciate anything that has ever been done for me."

Like today for example; I’d plan on going down to Redeemer for Ash Wednesday services at noon then hanging out and writing in a coffee house for a few hours before going to work. I can't do that because I’m not really comfortable with leaving a dog in a crate over thirteen hours and I spent more all morning cleaning doggy diarrhea out of his crate, the walls, carpet and my roommate's bedding. I feel like I have to hang out at the house more than I normally do because I don’t want him crated all day and all night.

As I understand it she’s not trying to find Diesel a home anymore, not contributing to Diesel’s care and, "Wants to see Diesel one more time before we give him away.” So not only does she want us to house, feed, find a home and undo the damage she’s done to the dog, but she wants us to wait until there’s a time that fits her schedule to come over and say goodbye before we give him away; that's not the definition of self absorbed at all. She should just be lucky we're not taking him to a kill shelter.

If I have any say in what happens that’s not going to happen, the moment we find someone willing to take him he's gone. He's been here almost a month and she hasn't come by once. She’s more than welcome to come over and walk Diesel, take him to a dog park, you know, help out any time that fits her schedule but apparently she’s not interested in doing any of that. She is welcome to say her goodbyes but rather wait for us to find a home and then delay the handoff by a day or two so that she can say goodbye then, not by say coming over and taking him for a walk, or cleaning up the diarrhea he left in his crate and walls behind it last night, she just wants to inconvenience us just a few more days, because she can’t say goodbye until we've found him a home, of course... how silly of me it is to expect her to do anything to make my life, the man whose opened up his home to her dog, any easier.

The fact the roommate isn’t getting pissy about the arrogance this girl is showing just proves he’s a better person than I am.