Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Taking the Piss!

It's things like this that make me wish I were a naturally selfish person.

For months my dad has been planning a holiday away with his new girlfriend. He didn't know where they would go, but he did know that it would be some time in September, and asked me ages ago if I would look after the family dog for ten days while they were away. This I have absolutely no problem with. What I do have issues with is the fact that I feel like he's completely taking the piss. Albert is a King Charles, and so naturally has long, curly hair. When we lived together as a family my mum always used to get him booked in to be cut, so that for the most part his hair remained very short. This was done for a number of reasons, primarily because when his hair is long, he makes an awful mess, especially when he's been out for a walk, and he also doesn't smell so good either because the hair on his ears dangles in his food, and when he pees it often catches the hair on his under belly. The hair also collects more dirt as longer hair does, and it used to take my mum ages to clean the house if his hair was long.

Since the dog has moved to live with my dad however, his hair is long for the most part, and my dad doesn't seem to notice the negatives. But whenever he comes to stay he always has to be cut, so that i can keep the house clean. This means for the most part that he doesn't get cut until he arrives, and DL and I have to take him to be done because my dad hasn't been organised well enough to do it himself. We've never minded too much, we always book him in in advance, so that it gets done within a couple of days of his arrival, and that way the house is easier to manage. I should also add that my poor little dog has a bit of a problem with his man parts, and this means that he often dribbles spunk, disgusting I know. So you can see why, with that added bonus, I think not, I'm especially keen to create as few difficulties as possible.

So getting back to my origional gripe. My dad has known for months that the dog will be coming here sometime in September. He also knew that DL would be starting back at work full time, and so we wouldn't be able to take him to be cut, which meant that my dad would have to do it. I've reminded him more or less everytime I've seen him that he needs to get the dog cut before he comes here, especially now with the added mess of having my own dog to take care of. About ten minutes ago, I had a phone call from my dad, saying that he had a million and one things to do before he goes away on Thursday, that he'd rang around and couldn't get the dog booked in anywhere, and that he didn't have time to do it himself. Impressed? I think not! He makes me so angry because he knows that to book the dog in you have to phone up weeks in advance as they tend to be really busy, and when did he bother to phone them? Two fucking days before his fucking holiday. This wouldn't be so bad if he could do it himself, but he's so unorganised that he hasn't washed or ironed any clothes to go away, his car has broken down and so now is having a major stress. I told him that I wasn't happy, and reminded him that he said he'd get it done, and also told him how much extra work it creates for me when the dog is like that. Bare in mind that he and the dog came over the other day to see how the two dogs got along, and Albert looked disgusting. My dad doesn't seem to notice how awful the dog looks, he hadn't been brushed in weeks, desperately needed a bath, and his hair was so long he stank. Most of this I could take care of myself, apart from the cutting of the hair, and like I said DL is at work so we can't take him somewhere. I'm especially pissed off because I told dad I wasn't happy with the way the dog looked and smelled, and he promised he'd get it sorted out. Furthermore it's DL's birthday the day after he's being collected, and I want the house to look lovely for when friends and family come over, and my dad knew that. That ain't gonna happen with a manky dog around the place.

You might be thinking give the poor man a break, but he's like this all the time over one thing or another, leaving things until the last minute, and he doesn't seem to appreciate how much it inconveniences others. DL's not too impressed about having to have the dog anyway, because she'll have to get up even earlier to take him for a walk, so it'll mean extra hastle for her too, but we obliged because he's the family dog and I wouldn't want to put my dad out and say no when I know he's stuck for people to look after him. I basically inferred as politely as I could that it was due to his poor organisation that this had happened, and that I wouldn't be at all happy if he wasn't cut. His parting response was, "So everything's left to me as usual." I bit back the response that "well he is your dog and therefore your responsibility," and in the end he practically hung up on me because he was so mad. I should also explain that he's got an incredibly short temper, and if he hadn't hung up he would have gone purple in the face and screamed at me down the phone. Last year we had a huge argument about the dog, because he leaves him for twelve hours at a time, sometimes more when he goes out, and in my oppinion that's neglect and not at all fair on the poor thing. I tried to talk to him rassionally about getting a dog sitter, or some one to come and walk him, and he got in my face and shouted that there was nothing wrong with the way he takes care of the dog, and we ended up having an almighty argument, because no one screams in my fucking face, not even my dad. There was a lot of bad feeling for months after that, and to be honest I can see this going the same way. He'll blame me and say that I'm not considerate of how much he has to do before the holiday, but to be frank I really feel like he's taking the absolute piss. It's like he thinks I don't have things to do, and I don't want a clean house, (his isn't especially great in my oppinion), and I have days on end to spend going around after the dog with a mop.

I just feel like I've had the favour I'm doing him thrown back in my face, he's not paying for the dog to go in to kennels, he knows he'll be walked twice a day, fed properly, played with and loved, so there's nothing to worry about, and all I ask him to do in return is this one small thing that makes my life ten times easier when I look after him. I mean, you wouldn't send your child to some one to look after looking and smelling filthy, with dirty clothes and hair, so why should it be any different with an animal? I'm just really annoyed, and wish he wouldn't take it for granted that I'll have the dog no matter what state he's in. And I feel like I can't explain to him how upset I am about it, because he'll just fly off the handle. I can't talk to my mum about it either, because if she knows he's upset me she'll give him ten rounds of F's, and I don't want there to be any bad feeling.

So two sinarios will happen now:
A: the dog will arrive with long, dirty hair, my dad will half appologise but know there's nothing i can do about it now that I have him to stay, and I won't say anything because I don't want to end up in a confrontation with him.
B: the dog will arrive freshly cut, and my dad will have an attitude with me for apparently forcing him in to doing it, resulting in my feeling guilty, when in fact the fault lies purely with him.
I can't win either way.

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