Going...Going...Gone

Something unusual, Something Sad

First, something unusual. While driving on Wabash the other day, my daughter and I see this guy hitch-hiking. The unusual thing, he was sitting in a green recliner in the weeds on the side of the road with his thumb up. His chair sat there for several days and then one day it was gone.

Something sad. My step-son whom I've raised the last fourteen years is in the process of being evicted from his apartment. He told me about a month ago that he wasn't staying there, but with "friends." He wouldn't say who they were and he also set his cell phone to a message that said he was not taking calls. I asked him if he took his dog with him and he said he'd left her in the apartment, but was checking on her daily. His landlord called and said that he couldn't get hold of Son and that he was evicting him and he had until July 19 to move out. We passed on the word and Son's dad told him he'd help move him out this last weekend. Son never called back so we went by the apartment July 9 and the landlord let us in. My husband went in first with me behind him and the landlord behind me. The odor that hit you when the door opened was horrible! My husband physically recoiled from it and when it reached me I automatically put my hands over my nose and said, "Oh my gosh!" Before the landlord got in, I shut the door. The dog ran down the stairs to meet us and she had pooped and peed on the stairs from top to bottom. The two bedrooms were closed off and also the bathroom, but the poop and pee covered nearly every square inch of exposed floor which was the kitchen, hallway, and stairs. The dog had shredded clothes and paper and she had no water. Son had left her food in a bag which she had ripped apart. We gave her water and she drank two bowls and wanted more. There was no place to step unless you tip-toed across the floor because of the reasons I've already stated. The dog was running rampant through all the pee and poop and trying to jump on us. We decided she could not be left in that situation and took her. The landlord thanked us.

Okay, so this guy that lives below Son, called Son and told him we were in his apartment. (Son lets this guy know how to get hold of him but not his dad or me or his mother.) Son wants to talk to his dad. Son tells dad he'd better not take his dog, it was none of his business. We took her anyway. Son comes over and is saying "F___ this and F___ that. And that's why he wouldn't tell us where he lived, he didn't want us in his business, that we had no right to go in his apartment or take his dog (Son used his key to come in our house whenever he liked since he moved and also took all the food he wanted which isn't his)." He picked up the dog by the neck and took her. His dad told him if he took the dog back to the apartment, he would turn him in to the Humane Society. It's stupid because we haven't stuck our nose in his business except when he whined for it such as not having enough money for rent, electricity, dog food etc. He's dropped out of 4 college classes and a free education and owes eveyone under the sun but keeps asking his dad and biological mom for money because he has had and quit 4 or 5 jobs and can't make payments.

I felt upset that Son turned out such a person; that he allowed that kind of filth in his home, that he left a living creature in the shape he did, that he disrespected the landlord (the landlord has put up with Son's crap for months), that he treated his own flesh like strangers and strangers like family and so on.

We changed the locks on all our doors because my husband thinks Son will try to do something to get even. Our house is alarmed too. Hubby says Son's on his own now, come what may. I've said all along Son needed to suffer the consequences of his actions, to stop babying him. And...so it goes.