It all started just the other day, when I noticed that the grass out in front of my apartment was getting obnoxiously high. I mean, like a foot tall.
So I called the landlord's assistant, Rosemary, and asked if the maintenance guy, John, was going to cut the grass. I also inquired about the status of him installing my window unit a/c. (I had requested the a/c be installed a week or so ago, but made the mistake of mentioning that it wasn't anything urgent.) She informed me that he was getting around to it, and that the grass would be cut soon. I was really trying to not be that pain in the ass renter, but the grass was embarrassingly high. So high, that I had noticed that the neighbors had stopped letting their dog go to the bathroom in it for what I thought was a fear of losing it in the brush. This was a little bit of a good thing, I didn't have to warn Hannah about the turds normally awaiting her arrival to my place.
Later that day I came home to the sound of a lawn mower hacking it's way through the 5x20 patch of grass that posed as our front yard. My cordial wave hello was returned by what I swear was a dirty look. I stopped and said hi to my dog loving neighbors on my way up. They assumed that I was the one who called and "got John out there" to mow. I told them that it was crazy high, and that they couldn't even let there dog out the front anymore, and that's when they dropped the bomb...
Someone had stolen their dog, and that is why I hadn't seen it in the front yard lately. My neighbors choked up as they related the story to me. Evidently, Larry had walked with his beloved poodle down to the Speedway to get some cigs. As he was inside, someone picked up the dog and ran off with it. I glanced over at Chris and noticed how pained he was. I'm not really a dog lover, but this really angered me. Who would steal someone's dog? It wasn't some pure bred or anything, just a cute little poodle. I looked Larry in the eye and said, "If I ever find out who stole Buttercup, I will kick their ass." And I meant it.
I walked up the stairs and proceeded to install the a/c my damn self. I figure that if the unit falls out window and onto one of the ever smiling Mexican guys that live next door, that's the landlord's fault.
