When i moved in to my craigslisted abode, i knew there was going to eventually be a dog in the house. I looked forward to this. Little did i realize that my roommate had never raised a dog before, only cats. Also, this dog she brought home is a pitt bull. A very sweet one, but it eats every fucking thing in the house, and i mean anything it decides to eat, and pees and poos everywhere. Also my roommate was anti-training, anti-crate training and anti-any sort of keeping it outdoors, or any kind of cleaning up after the dog, except for the excrement. Therefore the DOG TOOK OVER!!! One day i came home to the entrance of my room with plastic bits, sock bits, and a giant tree branch all in front of my room!!!! This was my roommates retarded solution at keeping her away from other things in the house. Mind you she is in LAW SCHOOL and doesn't have time to be with the dog!!!! That's the other problem. It's an INDOOR dog and needs to be let out, and whatever she asks us to do it, and motherfucker i have two jobs, and shit a life, jeez, i feel like i am in panic mode when i get home worried if i pee the dog will poop while i am trying to use the bathroom!! I HATE THAT FUCKING DOG!! It ate my mail! It ate my letter!! It smells bad!! I EVEN LOVE DOGS!! I came home from thanksgiving and there were eaten socks everywhere because she lets the dog take socks out of her room and eat them. There was a plastic cup on the stairs, all eaten up. There were bits of plastic from the eaten cd's EVERYWHERE. There was cotten and shit like that all over the carpet and I finally said, dude, you have to clean up after your dog. I can't do it for you all the time. She acted like she didn't notice it because she is a messy natured person. That was it! I don't need it neat, but shit, it would be so embarrassing for someone to come over!! We already have such a ghetto house. After this she decided to take the dog to the pound to try to see if someone could watch her until finals since none of us could since the dog needs to be monitored all the time!!!!! mother fucker! Then she sent out this fucking email!!!
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I feel like Ruby is a topic that conjures only negative thoughts. She certainly has some for me- ate my phone, cost me $$ on crate/toys/leash/carpet cleaner. However, I personally enjoyed having her around during the fleeting moments when I wasn't dealing with consumption or excretion.
It's hard to remember all those people I know who have dogs whose dogs don't destroy their house and control their lives. Oh yes, there's one, there's another... yes all the other dogs I know do not excrete in the house or chew everything they can find. This gives me hope. If other dogs can do it, so can Ruby!
She comes home on the 15th. I will print out info from the pros on exactly how to adjust dogs' behavior, and I have 4 weeks off school to dedicate to it.
Something has to change though.
I think it's reasonable that those who get the benefit of having a dog around also accept the responsibilities. I grossly underestimated how much work she'd be during the first month. I thought there wouldn't be any problem doing it myself. I was totally wrong. But the responsibility of a dog split between 4 people is more manageable-- especially the night & day difference between a well-behaved dog and the psychotic bitch that was here for a few weeks.
The question is getting her well-behaved. As I said, I'll have oodles of time after the 15th, and we'll follow the pros' advice to knock out the bad habits. But she's going to be the house's dog now.
Yes, this is a unilateral decision I'm making. I make these almost never-- you can ask my friends in Raleigh where I held this same "house billpayer" role for 2 years and NEVER ONCE made a unilateral decision. However, since you all are free to give 30days notice and I am the one with all the risk and financial/organizational responsibility, it's reasonable that I have the right to give any of you 30days notice either to leave or to change the conditions of your staying here.
That's exactly what I'm doing now. The change of condition is that, effective Jan 1, Ruby is a household responsibility like gas or internet. Both her personal and financial care will be divided by 4. 4 people can totally handle taking care of a dog, especially once she's behaving. The financial aspect will be minimal. Only food, maybe a toy, and a yearly checkup (which she won't need until 12months from now. There will be no expensive surgeries).
Cecil: I’m on the verge of a career crisis!
Courtney: ruh oh!
Cecil: hit restart!
Courtney: force quit!
Cecil: my boss already did that to me 2 months ago!
Courtney: hahaha… unexpectedly quit
Cecil: hahaha
Cecil: process contains fatal errors
Courtney: abort, retry, delete?
Cecil: i want to reformat my hard drive
Courtney: your internal or external?
Cecil: if only it were that easy
Cecil: hahaha
Cecil: internal, save the external in case I change my mind
Courtney: you can still boot from the external
Courtney: perhaps you should make a backup
Cecil: I’m hanging
Cecil: too many processes at once
Courtney: multi-task processing
Cecil: maybe it will work itself out after some sleep mode
Courtney: I recommend defragmenting
Courtney: and some anti-virus protection
Cecil: I’m so fragmented
Cecil: I’d tell you about my bits but that’s nsfw
Courtney: hahahah
Courtney: that really burns my disc.
Courtney: (this is getting bad)
Cecil: hahaha, “getting”
Courtney: dammit
Courtney: Okay, blogging this
Courtney: haha
Cecil: oh boy…
I just wanted to say that after some unfortunate delays, the first issue of my new series The Secret Voice will be out tomorrow, Wed. Nov. 30th! I am quite excited about this, and I hope you will be too, once you see the book. Despite being overly critical of myself and all the fruits of my labor, I'm still pretty proud of this debut issue. ;)
Here are the details:
4-color cover
64 pages
6.685" x 10.187" saddle stitched
$4.95 US funds
If you don't believe me, because I'm quite obviously biased- well, there've already been a few pleasant reviews out there on the net.
Alan David Doane at Comic Book Galaxy says "Not since the debuts of Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca's Street Angel and Salgood Sam's Revolver have I experienced a debut that feels so much like a shot across the bow of the status quo in comics. Soto delivers 64 packed pages in the first issue of this new one-man anthology, with stories ranging from mysterious and bizarre ("Dr. Galapagos Chapter One") to thoughtful and thought-provoking ("Day 34")."
He says other stuff too, so read the whole thingfor his full impression.
Marc Mason at Movie Poop Shoot had this (and more, click to read it all) to say: "What makes that story so fascinating, though, is that nothing about it feels unauthentic or out of the ordinary. Soto is so serious in his presentation that you are swept up in it and buy in completely as a reader, ignoring how outlandish it seems. Other stories in this compilation back up that sensation, as they tackle issues of identity, anger management, and loneliness. It’s quite amazing how he balances the conundrums."
If you'd like to see more, there's some assorted preview pages and behind-the scenes info at my Image Blog.
Anyhow, please do me a big favor and check out the Secret Voice tomorrow at all finer comics shops! (and if you're in the Baton Rouge area, you can go to The School of Comics on Jefferson and Government, by the Compact Disc Store)
