Free rant

Man,What the heck is going on here. Are the posters have a barbque mod day or something!!Some of the best helpers I have seen on this board are ready to walk.This really has got me mighty hot under the collar!

This site is nothing like it was when I joined in 2005. I am beginning to think there is a bounty on the mods of this site.

You're right cajun, I am just one more push away from walking and taking a few good folks with me. This forum has grown with many good people, but it has also taken a turn in a direction that I don't like and it feels threatening to me. The experience I have comes from over a year of collections experience and fdcpa knowledge, now here come all these lawyers and consumer advocates and all of a sudden I'm outgunned and nothing I say amounts to a thing anymore, I've said all I can and I'm just here as a fun face.

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I agree with you both, Ari & Tammy. Have fun on your new site :-)

You're welcome to join us if you like. Pm me your e-mail address for an invitation.

Well,
Please don't ever accuse me of that glorious job choice(lawyer). Hell I didn't even go to college. When I first came here,I read most of your posts(Ari). You have a first hand knowledge that cannot be duplicated by anyone. My little deal is digging up laws and research.I don't have the unfornate experience of a collector calling and I don't have the inside knowledge that you and other mods have here. I would be very sad to see any member want to leave.I have just started to feel at home here and now as my luck runs,the board is gonna implode. I have posted on probably six different consumer boards and this is the only one I can honestly say that is willing to go as far as necessary to help anyone that needs it.

This forum was once my pride and joy. Then came this oppressive onslaught of bashers calling us dumb people, requesting nudie pics and sexually harassing the women, and guests being really rude and judgmental. I must confess that this brought out the worst in me and I disgraced myself with my reactions. The lot of us who are thinking of breaking away feel like we have gone above and beyond only to get $hit on and it's not worth the time and energy anymore. If there is anyway the forum could be the way it was in 2005 I would stay without question, but there are over 70K members now, many of them we know nothing about, and it doesn't seem possible to enjoy this anymore.

Ari, I haven't been on this forum as long as you and others have, but I agree that it isn't like it was even when I joined. It's really a shame because I've been helped so much by your posts and others, as well, who are leaving or have left the board. I'll miss you.

Aw heck I'm not leaving I've decided. The handful of us fun-loving mods are having us a little goof-off fest in the pub to lighten up. How could I could i leave my closest friends? This is one case where the good of the few outweight the good of the many.

I adore you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And you've got me hooked!

Ok...I have a MAJOR rant. I just have to get it off my chest, or I'm going to explode.

My home was previously owned by a man who had 13 cats - all of them outside. When he moved out, he left the cats behind, and told the neighbors it was their problem, not his. Fast forward a year and a half, and I am now the owner of the house, and one of the neighbors has taken over the "care" of the cats. I use the term "care" very loosely.

Now, I don't much care if she takes care of the cats. I don't want them. But they are very nearly feral - you can't get near them - she doesn't take them to the vet, and none of them are fixed. In the 13 months since I bought the house, three of the females have had 2 litters each, and are now pregnant AGAIN. The males spray on my front door, my van tires, the side of my house and my sliding glass door to mark "their" territory.

Now, the neighbor seems nice enough, though a little on the strange side...I've just been friendly to her, but we haven't talked all that much - mostly about the darn cats and how she feels sorry for them and wishes she could get rid of them, but doesn't know what to do, yadda yadda yadda.

Tonight was just about the last straw. My son took our dog (a rambunctious boxer-shepherd mix) out for a walk, and one of the cats ran in front of him. He jumped at it, of course - he's a dog! He didn't attack it or anything, but barked at it. She came running out of the house and accused my son of using the dog to tease the cats!! He assured her he wasn't teasing the cats. They had a short conversation about how sorry she feels for the cats (again), and he advised her that at least two of the females are pregnant once again - she replied "yeah, I saw that"...but said nothing about doing anything about it.

I'm SO ticked. She has the nerve to accuse my son of teasing the cats, she complains about how many of them there are, puts on this long-suffering act about how she takes care of the poor stray cats, yet she won't do a darn thing to correct the situation. I'm not saying she has to get rid of them, but at least get them the proper vet care and get them fixed if you're going to keep them!

I think someone teasing the cats is the least of the things she should be worried about. Try rabies, feline leukemia, worms and all the other diseases and maladies that un-immunized cats carry and pass to each other..and to their unborn kittens.

Ok, sorry...I feel better! I'll step off my soapbox now. :roll:

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Have to let off some steam, so bear with me....My son's prom is next week. A month ago my son and I went to the tux place in a nearby town and picked out his tux (a Zoot Suit). Turned out the hat and chain had to be bought because they were not a part of the actual tux. Ok, no problem. Me ~ how much is the hat and chain. Lady 1 ~ Chain is $10 and the hat is $20. Me ~ Ok, we are going to look a little more so we can let him be sure what he wants to do. Lady 1 ~ ok.

Son and I discuss it and he says he really wants to Zoot Suit with the hat and chain. We discussed him having to pay for the hat and chain himself, which he agreed to. Now we are ready to place our order. Lady 2 comes over and we tell her he has picked out his tux and tell he what he wants. Lady 2 ~ Did you want the hat and chain too. Me ~ Yes. Lady 2 ~ OK, the had is $30 and the chain is $10. Me ~ Oh, the other lady told me the hat was $20. Lady 2 ~ Well it is actually $30 but since you were quoted $20 I will give it to you for $20. Me ~ Oh thank you. That is great! Oder is written up and measurements are taken and deposit is paid.

Fast forward to today (exactly 1 week before Prom) ~ we get a call at the house. My son called me at work and told me the people from the tux place called and said we were going to have to pay more than what we thought. I asked him why and he said the price on the hat was wrong. I call the store. Me ~ Hi, this is XXXX, XXX's mom. My son called me and told me that there was a problem with our order, specifically the price of the hat. Lady on phone ~ Yes, the price of the hat is actually $35, so the difference will need to be paid. Me ~ No...when me and my son were in the store, this is what happened (and I told the story). Lady on the phone ~ Our price on the hat is $35 and you were misquoted. Me ~ No...if on the night we were in the store we were told that we were sorry about the misquote, the price is $30 and asked if that was ok, it would have been, but not now. Lady on the phone ~ Do you want to cancel the hat. Me ~ No but I think I should not have to pay more than what is on my receipt. I have worked retail before and we use to have to honor misprices. Lady on the phone, (which now comes out that she is the one that did our order and has the ticket in front of her) ~ I need to talk someone and will get back with you. Me ~ that is fine, but I am leaving work early to go to the doctor, so you can call the house and talk to my son and tell him what you found out and I will call you when I get home.

Fast forward again (and of course I am still upset over the previous phone conversation), no call when I got home. So I called the store and ended up talking to the owner. I asked her about the hat situation and I got the hat price spill again. AGAIN ~ I told her the hat story and the fact they are calling me one week before prom and no we did not want to cancel the order. Without going into all the back and forths, I ended up telling her that I had did some checking and also had worked in retail and that I felt she should honor the price that was quoted. There was a little resistance and I would not back down! She told me that she was not trying to start an argument and I told her neither was I but I felt the price should be honored. Well, she got a little upset and informed me that "She would honor the price, this time".

A week before prom and they call me up wanting me to pay more for something that they agreed to sell me at a lesser price!!! That just ticks me off so bad! It was not my fault that someone messed up and then to call me this late in the game! If it wasn't so late, I swear I would have cancelled the order and went somewhere else! I would have paid the higher price that night, but not now! I will not go there again! I am sure when we go in to pick up the tux next week, someone will have some "attitude" with us. I plan on being as pleasant as pie, but they don't want to get too much attitude!

Ok, I am done venting. Just had to get this off my chest. It was wrong and totally upset me and my son. Don't know if anyone else has had a not so nice experience with them, but this just made me not to want to go there again...especially with the owner doing this too!


OK that is my rant for the day.

2nband - let's get together and drink a pint and bash the irritating neighbors and store clerks of the world! :lol:

Suebee - call animal control. Those cats are a dangerous health risk, not only to humans, but to your dog as well. Screw the crazy neighbor. we had some fool who used to let his cats mate all the time and every time he had litters he would dumpthem in the park at the bottom of my street. The were so bad and ferral that even the racoons were afraid of them. We called animal control and it took them 2 monthes to get rid of them all.

Thanks, Irish. I'm going to call them today. I don't want to make enemies with the neighbor, but this is getting ridiculous.

I also have a rant! Now you all know I have 2 dogs. The bulldog wouldn't hurt a flea because she is too lazy to move and the lab/boxer mix is friendly unless someone trys to hurt one of us. Well yesterday afternoon the meter reader for the light company came to read the meter and I had the dogs out. Angel (bulldog) was on her chain on the porch and the meter reader was going to mace her. Yes, I said MACE. I heard her barking and I went to the door and asked him what he thought he was doing, and he told me that he received authorization from his supervisor to mace her because she was barking at him. She was no where near the light meter. I told him that if he maces any of our dogs, I would have him fired from his job immediately. There was no need to even think about spraying her. He said that he has the authority and I told him that he had no authority when my dogs were chained and not bothering him.

I have a bad temper when it comes to someone harming my kids or dogs. What has this world came to that people think they have to mace animals?

OMG Tammy - what a jerk that meter reader is! The nature of a meter reader's job is to come onto your property to read your meter - which puts him in harm's way if there are dogs around, because dogs naturally protect their property and their people. It's their instinct. You can't just mace the dog because it's barking - if the dog is chained up and far enough away that it can't reach the meter or the meter reader, there shouldn't be a problem. I think I'd file a complaint, complete with pictures of where the dog is chained in relation to the location of the meter.

Tammy, your dog, on your property, behind a fence, on your property. A meter reader comes on to your property and is going to mace your dog? I would file complaints whereever possible. Suebee, I disagree with your statement that the nature of their job is to come on to your property. A card can ALWAYS be left for the home owner to read their own meter and send it in. If there is any fear, they should not even consider coming on to your property. That is absolutely bull sxxt! I am pissed off about this. Please Tammy, complain to someone.

Thinks like that irritate me. Sue, call animal control. I had to do that on one of my neighbors because their barn cats kept coming over here. Now, we have barn cats but we also take care of them. We feed them twice a day, I worm them myself, and they get yearly visits to the vet. Most people think I'm weird around here doing that but I have house pets to think of too. Now, I have a male shepherd that was abused as a puppy and is a little leary of people, especially men. He isn't animal agressive either. Last week, I get a letter in the mail from another neigbor stating that my dog tore her dog up. She wanted me to pay the $300 vet bill. There is a neighbor in between us that lets her dogs run around the area. We live in the country so our houses are not too close together. So, I get accused because I have the german shepherds. Hmmm, I called her up and told her no way was I going to pay anything towards this vet bill. I asked her if she had proof that if was my dog and she said no. I also said I go out with my dogs so I know when they try to wander off. My male is very well trained and listens to me. He doesn't go into other peoples yards to tear dogs up. He doesn't have a lot of animal aggression unless someone else's dog comes into our yard. He usually just barks at them and they run off. I've never seen him go after any other dogs or cats in the neighborhood. Heck, he cuddles with my house cats as well as the barn cats. The neighbor even admitted that the other neighbors dogs had torn her dog up a couple of years ago. Besides, the date and time in question, I was gone and so was hubby so my dogs were in the house. He hasn't mastered the art of unlocking doors yet. It's irritating because it's stereotypical of the breed. She's walked her dogs past my house when I was out with my shepherd. He never ran after her dog or even barked at them when they walked by. She finally apologized the other day. I don't think I will become fast friends with her.

Mishele, sorry your have such a jerk for a neighbor. I have a male german shephard also and people automatically assume he is nasty. I also have a golden retriever. People automatically assume he is nice. Not that he isn't, but IF one of the dogs is going to be snippy, it is the retriever, not the shephard. People assume way to much when it comes to animals. What the hell kind of person sends you a vet bill out of the blue? Like you are just going to pay it because she said so? Not anyone I would want for a friend. Don't mess with my animals.

Suebee ~ if we probably lived close enough, I would take you up on your offer! I don't really drink that much, but dang, with everything going on at one time, I keep thinking I am going to start! LOL I am a "lightweight", I admit it.

Tammy ~ I would be making some calls to someone about this guy and his mace and let them know that your dogs were no where near him and they were only barking. To me that is just someone being an a-hole because he thought he could. I hate it when people try to mistreat animals. Heck I have 3 dogs of my own and if I could afford it, I would be out there with more!

Mishele ~ where we live, people tend to let their dogs run too. I try to keep mine in the fence (although once in a while they will find a way out even with the "hot" wire on), but some of these people have aggressive dogs. I am glad to hear that this lady apolgized to you. She was quick to accuse and that is a shame. One of my dogs is a chow/shephard mix and he is such a big baby (unless he feels someone is threatening us). He isn't as much of a barker as my other 2 (lab/setter mix and a poodle). When he barks, we go check things out.

OK...now I have to share some news....I talked to my mom yesterday and she told me that Ida, one of my cousins that is in the hospital with CF, should get to go home by this weekend. Robert is still having to stay in. His lung capacity has come up a little, but not enough to warrant sending him home. He is still on oxygen, but right now they just have the tubes that go to the nose. Ida is not going to be able to go back to school for another 2 to 3 weeks, but at least she is going home. Hopefully Robert will get to go soon too.

Well, lunch time and one of the guys I work with bought pizza....

Our friend has a german shephard and he is the sweetest thing. You til him to go get someone, he actually goes to that person and head butts them and then walks back. So many dogs get a bad rep then automatically that breed is bad. Not every dog has problems!

Sue, I love cats with all my heart, and I would just love to go kick your neighbor in the pants for their lackadaisical attitude towards the welfare of those cats, I'd like to kick the ass of the previous owner of your house as well. Those cats need proper healthcare, housebreaking, and good homes immediately. Get on top og animal control as fast as you can! Then pm me your address so I can sneak over to the neighbors, tp their trees and put hair remover in their shampoo/conditioner.

Tammy, if that lady threatens your dog with mace on your property, threaten her back with your garden hose on your property, or silly string depending on your mood.

I know my male shepherd is such a baby. If he doesn't know someone, he will ususally just stay away from them. What really irked me about the letter was she said she was afraid he would tear up a small child or baby. Hello?????? Yes, I let my dog run free and chew everything in site. He wouldn't hurt kids, he loves kids. Kids can pull on him, pet him too much, he doesn't care. When I take him to the vet, one of the lady vets is just terrified of him. When she worked on him last year with the broken leg, he pulled on his leg so hard, he came up. He didn't go after anyone, he was just trying to get away. He was hurting plus he was muzzled. She ran out of the room saying the dog tried to bite her. Even the vet assistant thought she was a little nuts. Let's just say, she doesn't touch any of my animals. I was really mad at the way she handled my dog.

Mishele, don't some people just suck? I say your horrible neighbors ignorance was on "high" when she wrote you that letter. Do you ever wonder just what makes people tick? I can't stand her and I don't even know her. And this is just my opinion, why on earth would anyone be a vet if they are afraid of animals? I would be very happy that she doesn't touch any of your animals, I wouldn't want her to touch any of mine. Thank goodness I have never come across a vet like that.

Thank you all for your support of this situation. The neighbor pulled out of her driveway yesterday when I was outside, and she just about broke her own neck twisting her head around to glare at us the whole time she was driving away.

I've called animal control, and they state there's not much they can do, unless enough people complain. Nice. They said they don't like to get into disputes between two neighbors, unless the whole neighborhood complains. Ok. I'll just wait until one of my dogs gets bitten by one of the cats, or worse, one of my kids, and THEN maybe they'll do something. :roll:

(for anyone wondering, YES, that was sarcasm.)

Sue- I can't believe animal control can't do anything about all those ferel cats. They do here!! We have also had neighbors who have gotten traps from them and trapped them, then animal control picks them up!!..Karen

Sue,
Are there any laws under health code or civil where you can get an order from a city judge to force animal control to do their jobs? For example Texas has a code where a neighbor can bring a complaint of a dangerous animal to city court and either person handles pet properly or animal control would step in.

About the cats, they said they can't do anything unless someone complains? Am I missing something, didn't you call them to complain? That is nonsense. You should not have to go to court to get this taken care of. That is ridiculous. There must be some like SPCA in your area right? That is crap.

Yes, I called to complain. We live in a very small county, with a very poorly funded animal control department. Our "shelter" is a joke. They are only open 2 days a week, and then only for about 4-5 hours a day. They also sell animals for research if they are not adopted. (There is a sign to that effect in the shelter.)

The county that borders us to the north has a beautiful shelter, abundant volunteers and resources for the animals, and puts very few animals down..and they don't sell them for research. But they don't take animals from outside the county anymore. They stopped because the people from our county were so upset with our own shelter policies that they started overflowing the neighboring county's shelter with animals.

I plan to call again this next week to see if I can talk to someone else - a supervisor or director or someone...and then I plan to go higher up. I think it's crazy that I can't even get something done about some stray cats.

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I'm with Ari on this. I would even call the tv channels - like the Call for Action segment. Sometimes they shame the animal control into action. I have 2 small shitzus, and at one time I had three (we had to put ourSadie down last year due to cancer) and they really think that they are pit bulls! They weigh all of 10-12 lbs., but they bark at any one or anything that goes by out fence. they are out side all of 10 minutes, and one of our neighbors called animal control on us for vicious dogs! When the dog warden came to the house - with the police mind you - they went hysterical laughing! They then proceeded to warn the neighbor not to make false claims.

Oh, Irish- It makes me miss my Shih-tsu! We had to put her down for cancer of the liver about a year ago, after 12 years. I want another one!! Isn't selling animals to reseaarch illegal? I,too, would call SPCA, TV, anyone- that is such a nightmare..KAren

Trust me, nothing would make me happier than to put our animal shelter out of business. It's a sad, depressing place. Not enough room for the animals, not enough staff, not enough funding. The notice about the animals being sold has been up in that building for years. I can only hope it doesn't still go on, but after a little investigation, it appears that it still does. I don't know if it's illegal or not. It seems if it was, then someone would have stopped them long ago.

It just amazes me how we can be neighbors to a county that has such an incredible shelter system going, with nice big kennels for the dogs, a beautiful building, professionally designed cages for the cats, several adoption rooms where you can take your prospective pet to visit with it, a large staff of volunteers that care for the animals...and yet here we are, right next door, with a pitiful little building with two small outdoor runs. Our county's shelter has such a high kill rate - in 2004/2005, it was running in the 60%+ range - with 90% of that being cats.

I love pretty much all animals, and I just can't stand to see the cats next door going without care, or with minimal care, and otherwise being left to fend for themselves. But taking them to our shelter would mean certain death or worse.

I'll be glad to join in that ass kicking Ari. I feel so bad about the cat situatuon suebee. I am a lover of all animals, and I can't imagine how heartbreaking it is for you and the cats to be in that situation every day. It does seem that the shelter in your area would be worse than what they are living now. I wish there was something I could do.

Guest,

I think some people are just scared of big dogs. If so, then why be a vet? You are going to help all kinds of animals, including big dogs. The lady vet that sees him now has a rotweiller so she understands the larger breeds. She just babies him and he loves every minute of it. As for my neighbor, when she drives by now, she always waves. Like she's our long lost best friend. My husband said the next time she does it, he's going to flip her off.... LOL!

Sue,

I'm surprised the state lets them get away with that kind of crap with the animal research. The laws with animal research are so strict on a federal and state level. Those types of animals would not be the right type of "prospects" so to speak. That is just disgusting to me when shelters are run like that. We don't really have a shelter in our area, it's more like angels for animals. I know their is an application process and I think a background check to even qualify to adopt an animal. I can't believe they won't do anything in your county about those poor cats. I'm in a really fowl mood right now so I could pay your neighbor a visit. I can send you some stuff to worm them at least. You just put it in their food.

Irish,

What cute dogs they must be! I have a little pekingese that things he's about 100 lbs or so. He makes more noise and messes than my larger dogs. Tonight I came home to find toilet paper strung around the house... I was a little irritated but I was really laughing my butt off because he still had some stuck in his teeth.

Ok...UPDATE....

I just got off the phone with our central dispatch for our county's animal control office. I can't reach animal control because they have such limited hours, as I mentioned before. They are open 10-12 and 1-4:30 on Tues, Weds and Thursday. That explains the high kill-to-adoption ratio - they aren't open on weekends or evenings, so a large percentage of the animals there are euthanized or sold to Class B Dealers, who then sell them to research. (A quick search on this situation confirmed it is still happening, but there are some laws in the works to try and stop it this year, provided those laws get passed.)

Central Dispatch said they will pick up dogs, but not cats. I asked what about a large number of cats? I told them about the situation we have in our neighborhood. We have 5-10 cats right now, but with at least 3 of them pregnant, we will have up to 20 very soon. And none of them are fixed, had shots, etc. They said they'd give the information to animal control and see what they could do.

I guess it's a start. I don't want to see the animals killed or go to a research facility, but they're not in a great place as it is. No health care for them, they're breeding like crazy, and they find shelter where ever they can. Not to mention the annoyance factor of the "wanna screw" calls I hear in the wee hours of the morning from these cats, and the pee stains and smell on my doors and my vehicle.

I'll let you know what happens. I don't feel very good about doing this, given the situation with our animal shelter in this county, but the cats are getting out of control in number, and it's about to get worse when they have their litters.

I also checked with Central Dispatch regarding how they will report this to Animal Control - I don't really want to deal with the neighbor if they confirm I was the one that complained. She seems a little "off", if you catch my drift. I'm sure she'll know it was me anyway, but Central Dispatch said they won't give her my name or tell her who complained.

Sue-it would almost be worth trapping the cats yourself and taking them to the next county who had a good shelter!!Maybe you could trap them take them there, and dump them and run!! At least they wouldn't be used for research!!..Karen

Karen - almost worth it, but not quite. They routinely charge people with animal abandonment in my state. It's a large fine and possible jail time. If I take them somewhere and dump them, and get caught, or it's traced back to me, I'm up sh-t creek. Not worth the risk to me.

I hate the idea of animal control taking the cats, but there's a good possibility they wouldn't be able to catch them anyway. The cats hide a lot of the time, but are very active at night (like most cats).

I don't think that Bossy meant for you to "dump" them anywhere. That would be just as cruel. I think the best thing to do is to call the paper, call the news, call ETA. Calling your animal contral is as your own posts say is not a good thing. I know you don't want trouble with your neighbor. I would be willing to make any calls for you if you want me to. I don't care about your neighbor. I care only about the animals. If you are not going to see this to the end, they why would have brought it here where there are people who are going to worry about it?

Thanks for the helpful thoughts "guest".

I'm fully aware of what Karen meant. I'm also aware of the laws of this state when it comes to animal abandonment, and if you get caught dumping them at a shelter without doing it through the proper channels, it's a fine and possible jail time. (i.e., trapping them and taking them there in the traps and leaving them.) I would never take an animal and just dump them somewhere. I appreciate Karen's suggestions, and I know she had the best interest of the animals and the best possible solutions in mind. I was not attempting to be snotty or anything like that. I was just stating fact.

Since I seem to be in the wrong here, according to "guest", I'm just going to drop this subject. I appreciate everyone who offered helpful suggestions.