And they call these folks managers???????? What exactly are they managing except to annoy me???

I'm irritated. Thus the picture. (OK, technically my irritation has faded as it's been a couple of days, but it's on my mind again, so I thought I'd share).

Here's the deal:

My mom went into the hospital a couple of weeks ago. It was miserable and scary and generally unfun. (She's doing well now, thanks, and in fact is coming home today. Yay!). Anyhoo, after the initial OMG moment had passed and I realized she'd be in for a while, I decided that I wanted to do a top-to-bottom cleaning of my mom's apartment.

Since top to bottom includes the bottom, I asked the apartment managers if they could get her new carpet (hers was gross–and was pretty gross when she moved in a year ago). They said no, but I could do that. Um, no. But they did agree to have it cleaned. I figured that was a good start. I reminded them that she has a cat, and they said they'd have it done that Friday.

Saturday I went by the apartment and noticed that Friday's cat food hadn't been eaten. Hmmm.

Now the cat, Three (yes, really), doesn't like anyone but my mom. I think I've seen the cat three (haha) times in its life. It hears someone coming in, and it bolts. But I searched for the cat…and found nothing. Catherine and I were at the apartment together, and she went to the back door, which is sliding glass and looks out over the apartment complex's pool. And there's the cat.

Well, shit.

We try to get the cat in…to no avail.

The trouble is that my mom cracks the door, and the cat comes and goes at will. Often, mom tells me, Three doesn't come home until 2 or 3 in the morning.

Catherine and I pondered what to do, finally deciding to leave the sliding door cracked and go finish our shopping. We do, and we return. Still no cat.

Needless to say, I'm irritated with the apartment management and the carpet cleaners. I mean, HELLO!!!!!! there's cat food right by the door and a sand box in the bathroom and fuzzy mice cat toys all over the carpet that they were cleaning. It's impossible not to tell that a cat lives here, and since they know the tenant is in the hospital, why, why, why would you leave a door open so that the cat can get scared and run out? Do you figure it has a latch key and can let itself back in????

Now comes the big question: What should I do? I could stay in the apartment with the door open, but if the cat sees me, it'll just bolt before it even comes in. And since it once stayed out (probably having gotten lost and turned around) for over three weeks, that just wasn't acceptable.

So I left….and I left the door open.

I went home, planning to come back at about 5 in the morning to see if–hopefully–the cat had wandered in and was napping.

That plan, alas, went all awry when my husband commented that mom would be happy to have her cat…but unhappy about the TV that walked away.

Sigh.

So there I go, back to her apartment around 9pm, hoping that maybe, just maybe, el gato is inside.

And….drumroll….I got lucky.

And thank goodness! Because how horrible if my mom had come home from a week in the hospital and then 10 days in rehab only to find her kitty gone…all because the management and the cleaners didn't take more care. So today's gripe is brought to you by people who do sloppy jobs and just don't seem to care (or to think).

So …. how about y'all? Anything annoy you lately? Any pet stories to share?

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