Is this how some pit bulls get bad
press?
I really hadn't wanted to talk about RY
but...
Because I can't afford gas for the
generator right now, and the nights have been freezing cold, I've
been staying with CK (our former roommate) and his new roommate M at
their house in town. It's challenging being here with 3 dogs and 2
cats and I've had to go back and care for the yaks every other day as
well.
M (the person who signed the lease and
the "lead" roommate) had called his landlady, informed her
that my dogs would be staying with me, informed her that they were
pit bulls and received permission for us to stay here.
 |
| Zen in the bedroom. Note the leash. |
Today M got a phone call from the
landlady. Someone said that a pit bull was running around loose and
it was one of mine. CK and I were astonished. I'd never let my dogs
off leash in town. And certainly not within a block of a train that
goes by on a regular basis. Since Zen's been confused at being here
and scratches on the door to "my" bedroom when folks pass
by, I've even had him on leash IN the bedroom.
The landlady was unhappy about this
report, as was M when he heard it. All I could think was that some
other dog (possibly not even a pit bull) was running around the
neighborhood.
Later the landlady called back with the
phone number of the person who'd called her with this report. CK
plugs the number into his phone, and who should pop up, but our
"buddy" RY.
Now we've got an interesting history
with RY. Two years ago when we had the fire, he and his wife were
kind enough to give us a tiny pick-up back camping trailer to live
in. We certainly appreciated it, having lost every dime and every
possession we owned and with winter coming on.
Sadly it was a gift that came with
strings. Not only did we have to listen to his wife S congratulate
herself on what a wonderful Christian she was, but we were now
beholden to them. For a while that wasn't a big deal. We were able to
return the favor by helping them do some major work on their farm
(and even dragged in a crew of our friends to help).
RY also talked us into going in on some
hay purchases with him. He'd store the hay and we'd pick our share up
as needed. Except we never seemed to get our hay (and often had to
buy from the local feed store). And every time he wanted to make a
new hay purchase, he'd say he didn't have enough to cover it, and
we'd end up pitching in more money - after all, we needed the hay!
(Which BTW he was making money on us with, charging us $2 or
more/bale than the actual cost.)
Then one of our trucks broke down. We
couldn't fix it and ended up buying RY's pickup. He wanted to buy our
old truck to fix up and sell. We made the foolish mistake of trading
it for more hay.
At this point he's into us for about
100 bales. But we felt grateful to them. Felt sorry for them because
his wife has Alzheimer's and a host of other problems, and between
the fact that they are animal hoarders, and her trips to the doctor,
they were generally broke.
RY also hauled water out to our place,
since we didn't have a convenient way of hauling it ourselves, for
which we paid him $30/load. Even after he owed us money (more re that
in a sec) we'd still pay him because he claimed he couldn't afford
the gas to get there otherwise.
About a year and a half ago, and within
the space of a month, he and his wife and their daughter borrowed
$650 from us in cash. Now there've been times since when we could
have desperately used the money. And the hay. This is possibly the
most desperate time of all, with us flat broke and trying to feed the
yaks and get me back to Florida.
So can you guess that I was a little
shocked when I found out that the complaint about the loose pit bull
came from RY's phone?
M called him up, and he was masterly,
"I don't know why you're doing this to these good people."
Of course RY completely denied it. "It wasn't me! I didn't make
that call."
Five minutes later he called CK back
and said, "I just remembered. There was this guy down by the car
wash named Junior. He asked to borrow my cell phone to call his
mother."
Astounding that he'd believe anyone
would fall for this garbage.
Meanwhile I have to wonder what
percentage of nuisance calls against pits are vindictive nastiness
such as this.
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