Harboring a dog

So, I come home from work yesterday & pick up my mail. There's a letter from the management company of my building. It says:

"It has come to the attention of management
that you are harboring a dog in your apartment. This is in direct
violation of your lease agreement. If the dog is not removed from premise
immediately, we will proceed with legal action and you will be responsible for
any/all costs that incur due to this situation."

So I hear you thinking... "Hmmm.... all that time she's had dogs in her apartment it was in violation of her lease?!?" Yes! Yes! Ok! Yes! But I figured they were just visiting!!!! "Ahhh" I hear you thinking "she is so naive..." Ok. Fine.

So, I took X's dogs for that weekend, remember. Bad idea. And I actually don't think that is what this letter is about. I think it's about the fact that J's dog has been staying over. With J and his daughter. J's daughter (and dog) moved in with him... and so when he came over during the week - so did they. Because he knew how important it was for me to have him over. For the reasons listed in that post. I needed him here. The kids needed him here. It was just great. So we worked out something that he would come with his dog and daughter every other week - Thursday through the weekend. And it was good. It was great.

I don't know which of our neighbors outted us... and I'm not even 100% sure why. He is an old, quiet dog. He barks only if door bell rings (not so often, it's not like I get door bell ringing visitors here!) or right before he's being fed.

I'm kinda thinking that the other morning, when he woke up early, wanting to go out, that his toe nails on my bare floors were probably just a wee bit grating for my downstairs neighbors. 6 am. Saturday morning. It's hard to be charitable at that time....

But now. What do I do? J and I had been planning to work out a new plan anyhow, in December, when his daughter's college schedule changed & she was more used to being with him in NYC, commuting to school, etc. Maybe she would stay one night at his place with the dog? We were going to see how it went. So - when I got this letter my first thought was.... "hmm.... every other weekend... only about three between now and December... maybe we'll just chance it? Maybe we'll just keep going." And I soothed myself with that.

Spoke to my sister last night. The conversation went something like: "ARE YOU CRAZY!??! IS THIS WORTH BEING EVICTED FOR?!? THESE PEOPLE COMPLAINED RIGHT TO MANAGEMENT - WITHOUT EVEN TALKING TO YOU! DO YOU THINK THEY'D APPRECIATE IT IF SOMETHING HAPPENED AGAIN?!?" Yeah. Something along those lines.

I'm going to call the management co - either today or Monday... but not sure how to present it. Just say "Ok, no more dog" and bring the dog. Say "ok no more dog" and really have no more dog. Or say "Listen - this is only every other weekend until December... this is a carefully crafted solution to a problem (no I'm not going to make them read my blog or anything!) and just let us continue 'til then. Windows will be closed, I'll put blankets on bare floors..... we'll be like little mice. And oh. While I have you on the phone... you have the nerve to complain to ME when you wouldn't get rid of the mice in my apt and this dog is the only thing keeping them out?!?" Something like that.

Thoughts? Am I totally screwed? Any of you ever deal with anything like this before? Suggestions?

Reading Blogs

I don't know about you guys, but I have a heck of a time keeping up with all the blogs I subscribe to. I mean what with work and those darn kids and boyfriend getting in the way, I have to actually do stuff instead of sitting and reading!! I use Google Reader & subscribe to.... ohhh.... 148 blogs. (Ok, ok - stop it! I know, I subscribe to too many - it's self-defeating! I get it!)

But still.

If I miss like one day, I have over 300 posts to read. And I don't even know why I subscribe to TMZ or Huffington Post - I NEVER read those... they post about 65 million posts a day & it makes me crazy.

I have issues - or maybe a wee touch of OCD? I hear you thinking that.

But seriously - do you guys just read far fewer? Skim them? What?

I know I don't have to read them all... but I like to.

Maybe all the blog writers just need to take a break one day a week, to give us mere mortals a chance to catch up....?

Maybe I need to get a life? (Don't answer that!)

The Real one!

I just checked & apparently the other post was just a photo of the Great Duck Chase of '07. This is the video. (Short, but a video.)

I'm not sure what the purpose was. I don't know what the purpose was of the entire place - it didn't teach anything except for kids to have absolutely NO respect for animals

Farm Trip

The kids were told to go into the cage and chase the ducks - that the ducks would run all together around the cage. Is that not the most apalling thing you have ever heard of? I mean, I'm far from being an animal rights anything.... but come on!!