Probably about 10 years ago, a family friend left their rats with us to take care of. They came home to dead rats. Growing up, some neighbors frequently had me take care of their animals while they left. They had everything from dogs and birds to mice and various sea creatures. Needless to say, they came home from one particular vacation to a dead hamster and a Beta fish gone belly-up.
The very worst, however, happened my senior year of high school. A couple in my ward, in all confidence, asked me to water their beautiful flower gardens, and take care of their 2 dogs they had raised from the puppy state, and probably considered them family. There were very specific directions for me to follow while they were away, and everything was going well until I wrapped the chain around the wrong pole to keep the dogs in the kennel, and came back the next day to find the kennel door swinging in the wind and two missing dogs. Now, maybe it's just me, but in my noticing I've found people tend to get a little more attached to dogs than a fish or a rat. People tend to get a little more protective of their dogs, and care a little more if they are dead or lost. With this in mind, I panicked. After tossing and turning in attempt to sleep in the backyard in hopes of them returning, scouring the town in a fanatical search, and calling the pound to report them missing, all accomplished with no results, I finally resorted to calling the couple to break the news...ooooor allowed my dad make the dreaded phone call. Turns out, if we had waited just an hour to make the call, the pound would have called saying two dogs matching our description were turned in, and what our friends wouldn't have known wouldn't have hurt them. Needless to say, the two dogs were indeed the blasted dogs I lost, and after a ride with two large, grown, excited canines in the back of a suburban peeing and shedding uncontrollably, they were safely returned to their rightful kennel, and I was never asked to house sit for the family again. I'm pretty sure we're all okay with that.
Although not the greatest, the latest is actually still in my possession, and I am counting the hours to which it is no longer my responsibility. My sister left for over a month, and I was placed in charge of several plants. The 6 flowers my little niece had planted and was growing are now down to 2 wilty, measly twigs on which it seems bugs have been feasting, and the plant that was received after our Grandma's funeral was found on multiple occasions flooded with murky, green, questionable looking water every couple of days, never quite soaking in or evaporating. I finally figured out it was in direct line of the sprinklers, and I can only hope I figured it out in time.
This seems to be something that can't be helped, but exceedingly fatal nonetheless. Just call me Rappaccini's daughter. So, all this equates to, if you leave me with anything to take care of while you leave town, you will come back to find it in a state less than healthy. It may be past the point of no return. You may not be so happy.
Mail can't be killed. It's about the only thing I can be trusted with. I'll stick with mail.
3 comments:
Oh Michelle, you do SO exaggerate. The rats didn't die until they had been back in their own home for at least 15 minutes!
Come now, come now. Becky's plants? You were gone for part of that month as well. Wait. That doesn't sound so good either..... never mind.
Well....yah, I can't refute your post, I tried in my head, but....well...yah. But really, you are doing me a favor if they do bite the 'dirt' They weren't attractive to look at, I just had to keep them around, and if they die-then I DON"T! Don't worry bout it
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