Inconsiderate Things My Brother Does

[Andara Bledin]

Oh, I could go on for days on this topic. >_<

What's got me irritated right now is that he was supposed to show up last night to deal with cleaning up the yard after his dogs (who savaged their cushion and strewed the stuffing all over, making us look really trashy, and neither of us are about to do a damn thing to clean it up and let my brother out of it) and give us money (not holding my breath... >_> ).

So he gets a time (6:00 pm) when we'll be home and we make sure we're home by that time. Now, it's worth noting that yesterday was my birthday and as it was a Wednesday, it was also the day we head out to Costco. There's a restaurant we really like near the Costco as well as a new restaurant that looks vaguely interesting, either of which would have been a detour yesterday for my birthday dinner had we not been expecting my brother.

So, we're home, doing our thing, and I get a text at 6:30, after he's already half an hour late, saying he won't be showing up because he can't afford the gas.

Needless to say, I sent him a reply about how it would have been nice to know that earlier, since he gets off work around 4 and had over 2 hours to figure out that he wasn't going to show.

I expect some "fun" tonight when he does show and we inform him that we won't keep the dogs much longer. It was supposed to be for a month, and it's been half again that long already. He still hasn't gotten part of the payment for the first month's keeping done, and he hasn't paid for the second month at all.

Plus, one of them chews up pretty much everything in sight including the hose (which belongs to him so I don't care, except that the end is still getting dragged all over the yard) and has half destroyed at least one of the rose bushes out front. They carry the pomegranates from the tree in the back all over, so there's rotting fruit to add to the hose and the cushion stuffing, as well as their droppings. And since the dogs are there, we can't let the neighbor in to do the mowing (we don't have any yard equipment at all), so the grass is getting long, too. Well, on one side, anyway; the other side is almost completely dead from the dogs.

Our place looks so trashy, it's embarrassing. We'd clean it up ourselves if it weren't for the fact that we both refuse to do anything that would get my brother out of doing it himself.

I'll take some pictures when I get home so that the rest of you can see just what kind of chaos several untrained and bored dogs can do to a typical yard. It's really something else.

^-.-^

[SongsOfDragons]

Ouch. I have no siblings, so I can't give advice there...but I sympathise for the mess. I hope you can have a pretty garden again. Those poor rose bushes!

[Duelist925]

Cant offer much advice (My sister is a biiiiitch but thats why I don't let her pull crap...I stopped doing favors for her long ago. =/ she lost the privilate)

But, per the dead bits of yard: once the dogs are gone, can try breaking the soil up a bit, then spreading a littler (not a ton) of either either fertalizer or I've seen potting or gardening soil used to effectiveness, over the dead areas, then spraying with a smidge of water.

I couldn't tell you WHY it works, havent studied gardening, but its what gramma recomended to fix dead patches of our yard, and seemed to work pretty well.

[Andara Bledin]

As promised: Pictures. (click the thumbnails for larger images - #2 wouldn't let me save a smaller version, so it's kind of large)

First, a shot of the mess in our driveway.



Another shot of the front part of the drive.



The poor rose bush. There's an aloe behind it that's slowly being shoved behind the roses, while at least half of the rose bush has been torn off.



As you can see, the other rose bushes go unmolested. They hardly even go to that side of the yard, which is part of why the grass is out of control.



Some more debris, and a spot where one of them has started digging. That's a new thing for them. >_<



^-.-^

[Aethian]

Time to take a snow shovel to those piles, cause that's past the time I would have delivered them to brother.

[Andara Bledin]

Oh, no.

He shows up every week (more or less) to deal with the mess.

Right now the yard looks really nice because he took care of it yesterday. The problem being that he doesn't actually show up every week like he's supposed to, he hasn't given me any more moenney like he's supposed to, and we don't want the dogs at all because they're too much effort.

^-.-^

[HotelKatz]

You're kinder than me. I would have threaten to put them in a animal shelter if I wasn't paid.

[AdminAssistant]

I would have already turned them in. Someone that inconsiderate doesn't deserve to be a pet owner.

[Andara Bledin]

I'm not going to punish the dogs (or his girlfriend, who claims ownership of one of them and is working to get her finances fixed after he trashed them - the move to Arizona wasn't good for either of them, and the guy they were working for gave her pay to him for some unknown reason >_< ) for the fact that he's an asshole.

The oldest is getting near the end of his life, and dumping him in a shelter would be like dropping your aging grandmother into the first old folks home you found because you happen to hate your aunt; not cool.

^-.-^

[AdminAssistant]

But what you're doing now is like shoving gramma in the back bedroom and tossing her a TV dinner once a day. A shelter could train and adopt out the younger one, and perhaps the older one. The dogs end up in homes where they are wanted and get the socialization and attention they obviously need. You guys aren't "dog people," and that's fine. Dogs are hard work. (Or at least dachshunds are, Heaven help me.) Our door is shredded. Every room has dedicated dog space, so that he can always be comfy and near us. He has a ruptured disc which will require a lot of cash and care, eventually. If I didn't love this little munchkin like a child, I would've gone crazy months ago, and I would've taken it out on him. Simply giving an animal food and shelter isn't enough, they need love, affection, and companionship, especially dogs.

[Andara Bledin]

The older one will not be adopted; he's like 16. The youngers won't even have a chance as they're pit bull lineage, which in the vast majority of everywhere get put down automatically.

^-.-^

[siead_lietrathua]

from the stuff they are tearing at, it looks like they are bored. the starting to dig is a pretty good sign of that too. they probably need something big to play with that they can destroy, like big branches or an old tire (with any metal removed) or a thick rope knotted up and tied to something heavy. giving them normal dog toys won't be durable enough but finding junk they can play with might work.
dogs+ boredom is the most destructive combination i know. even my mum's shitrats can raise hell if they get bored enough.

[Andara Bledin]

One of the younger ones is destructo-dog.

I know he's bored; he has no toys, and he destroys anything you give him. I got one of those chew rings with a rope attached. The rope lasted about two weeks before it was shreds scattered all over, and the ring itself lasted another two weeks before it was not much more than the rope.

He's got a chunk of 2x4 that he drags around and chews on. He also chews on the non-metal food dish. He destroyed their last water station as well as the wooden bench out front (also my brother's so I don't care). He's also got bits of house (loose bits from around the entry to under the house) that he throws around so he can chase.

^-.-^

[Aethian]

I got one of my bored huskies a big bag of tennis balls. They last her about 6 months till I finally find the last one shredded and then she gets a new bag to play with.

[siead_lietrathua]

ohh, tetherball. will drive them nuts if they like chasing. big ball on bungeecord to a ground stake. muhahahahahaha.