More About Cats

No offense to cat lovers, but I do not like cats.  That hatred for them became a part of me when I was a young kid in Pittsburgh, parents owning several cats, one of them having litters - I think it was every 3 months.  6 months, I don't remember.  Us kids were to take care of the messes of the litters.  I need not go into the specifics, do I?  If I did, it would be good if you weren't eating while reading it, but I am not.

I love dogs.  I have 4 of them.  My Great Danes follow me everywhere when I am inside or outside the house.  If I go out, they go out.  If I go out front - I don't always let them - but they want out there, too.  Whatever I am doing, they are there.  If I'm with the fish, I ended up putting a cloth tarp thing down over the rocks because, yes, that's where they want to be.

My dogs do not cause my neighbors problems.  They are in the house all night long, every night, not outside barking - as many dogs in this neighborhood are left to do.  I don't have dog crap laying all over the property, it's cleaned up every day.  My dogs bark - but not all day long when I'm not home.  They are like any other dog, they bark when they hear something the provokes them to bark.  My dogs aren't allowed to do fence-fighting with the dogs to the east of me, I put up a 4 foot fence in my yard to keep them from doing that.  More importantly, my dogs don't go to neighbor's yards and shit and piss all over the place.

And that, really, is where the rubber meets the road.

You see, I attempted to engage my next-door neighbor with the burned down house about this cat situation, since this is apparently what has 3 neighbors upset with me about.  He simply stated: "I cannot control my cats from going over to your house and shitting on your property".  The lack of ability to control one's animals does not, in my mind, therefore give a free pass to that person to allow that person's animals to do whatever they want to, whenever they want to, because "I cannot control them".  It was a pathetic conversation and he didn't want to get into it.  Of course not, how is he going to defend his cats crapping and pissing all over everything?

He did everything he could to change the subject, I continued to come right back to it.  Let's deal with this.  The apathetic attitude I got from him only gave me one idea:  put the trap out every night, catch a cat, every night, move it somewhere else.  No, the trap isn't set up with tuna fish in it right now - and I am not doing that - today anyway.  You see, no-one cares that my property is being damaged by their cats, they couldn't care less.  It doesn't make a hootin' nanny holler's worth of difference to them: that's MY problem.  Yes, but I can make it THEIR problem if they start disappearing.

This has been going on for quite a while now.  I have made it QUITE well known my extreme dislike that their animals are climbing over my fence, into my back yard, over the front fence, into my front yard.  It's spring and the plants that have been trampled are trying to make a comeback.  If those cats continue with that junk, it's just going to be a big, brown patch of dead, grown-covering plants.

If they were just using my yard to run through it, I couldn't care less.  But no, my front patch is a giant toilet to them.  The fact that that other neighbor threatened my tenant yesterday about this shit only makes me want to get rid of EVERY single cat that comes through my property.  Let me note that I have spent no small amount of time on my front yard.  It's plants, trees, now a small pond and a lot of rocks hauled from various other portions of the property.  You want to talk about sweat equity, THAT is REAL sweat equity.

So, my plan: I will spend as much time as I have to looking up "remedies" online - whatever is available to repel cats - make them not want to have anything to do with your place.  I tried Cayenne pepper, it didn't do anything.  If there are store-bought remedies, all well and fine.  I am NOT paying for it.  Those neighbors want their cats, THEY can pay for it or plan B may very well ensue.

I wouldn't DREAM of telling my neighbor: Gee, I can't control my cats, too bad, so sad.  I am going to look again at the City of Phoenix detail on cats and what you can and cannot do, I don't remember all of it and I want to refresh my memory.

Friday 4/1/2011

Friday

Let me note something here about the cat post I made yesterday: the guy threatening my tenants and I does not own any cats. The neighborhood ferals apparently like to go over there - which is great, let him take them into his home while he's at it!

I attempted to get that guy to come out of his house yesterday, he wasn't budging.

Next: The newest tenant calls me yesterday evening. I'm thinking, what now? I don't get calls from tenants unless something's going on - usually something in the negative range of things. Well, what he wanted was something we had already discussed, so no biggies there. He wanted to bring his girlfriend up from Tucson and have her move in with him. Yes, for a price, and additional $100 per month to cover extra utility usage. I have had these arrangements before and generally have not had any problems with it - but - there's always a first time. That's a done deal already, she's there and whatever. Another body to stuff the house with, I don't really care as long as it doesn't turn into a problem.

Obama. I am quite sure I will never figure this guy out. We are now pulling our fighter jets out of Libya and stopping the air combat? What IS this guy's deal? We don't go in and then just pull out. I hope the French don't do the same. I read something somewhere that defines Obama very well: He is NOT a leader. That pretty much sums him up. Look at his inability to do anything about getting Congress to come up with a budget that is agreeable to both sides. He hemmed and hawed about Libya until after the French went in and started it for us. The health care bill was largely forced through by Reid and Pelosi. Obama had closed door meetings, yes, but I don't really give him the credit for that bill, not that I think there is anything good about it anyway. It's just another unsustainable act of the federal government to take over something in the private sector that the government shouldn't be meddling with. But, I've thought this all along: he doesn't have any balls and it shows, glaringly.

End of work week is finally here. For whatever reason, yesterday felt like Friday. Today just feels like another work day. One thing to do in the truck routing system and that's it.

My great plans for the weekend include the same thing I have been doing for 3 weekends in a row: dealing with weeds, grass and pruning back, carefully, dead branches on trees and plants. (We'll be open in 13 minutes, I am thinking to myself as the DC truck is now backing into the driveway, undoubtedly wanting to come in here and have me stop what I am doing and deal with that, even though I am not on the clock - front door locked this time, thank you).

Oh, this weekend I will also be pulling everything out of my walk-in closet, going through all of it and undoubtedly chucking some stuff. The reason? Well, yes it does need cleaned out, but I am also looking for some paperwork dealing with the tax issues for 2007. I don't HAVE to have them, but I would like them for back up. They are replaceable, I guess, but at no small amount of aggravation. I am pretty sure they are in there somewhere, just have to go through everything, clean it up and deal with the mess. Yes, it's the one place in my house where the "hoarding" mentality sort of took over. I hope to have that situation dealt with by the end of Sunday. There are clothes in there - bags of them - that need to go to Goodwill; my tools are in disarray, that's where I keep them so they won't "disappear"; and lots of other stuff in there as well. Plus, hopefully, that tax information. Otherwise, I will have to call the company that dealt with the payments concerning that issue and have to pay them $15 to get it for me, but only if the IRS demands that paperwork or calls me in for an audit.

Other than that, life is grand. My mother is finally getting over the sickness that pretty much took her down for over a week; my dad is full fledged into moving to Tucson; my brothers I have no clue and don't care; my relatives on the east coast I have found out through an email my dad sent out to all of them are planning a reunion in August, of which I have serious doubts I will want to go to, even IF I have the money to pay for such a venture.

That's it!

Have a great day! (unless you are that obese neighbor that thinks you are god of the street we live on [and no, it wouldn't surprise me if he somehow found this site, so if you are reading this: PISS OFF!]).

ben