A story about pets ^^

You know that dog I mentioned a while ago? The one whose face is always frozen like this?

... Yeah, he's been here the entire time. 10 days. I only haven't written about him because my blog would get kind of monotonous:

Today, the dog was really annoying. All day, he was crying outside my door, and 

every time I would try to get him to shut up, he wouldn't be quiet unless I was

either petting him, or he was physically pressed up against me. Seriously. And he pooped

directly outside my door. And peed. Just like yesterday. And the day before that.

And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before...

... It would be the dullest blog ever, because every day would include some form of the dog crying, barking, pooping, and peeing in the most inconvenient way possible.

Well, now that the dog is about to leave and I can consolidate all of the stories into one amusing (hopefully) post, I feel that it is appropriate to post up a little bit.

This dog has learned how to use its bodily functions as a weapon. Considering its IQ, I have to admit I'm begrudgingly impressed; I wouldn't have expected the dog to put that much information together.

For example, a couple of days ago, I took the dog on a walk in the hopes that taking it outside would 1) prevent it from peeing directly in front of the front door (which it does every day, regardless of if you take it on a walk), and 2) get it to stop crying and barking outside my door (which it does every day, regardless if I'm actually sitting in the kitchen or in my room). I was in such a rush, however, that I forgot to bring a bag with me to pick up its poop; and thus, I was hoping to god that this dog was not going to need to poop.

So, we're walking around the block, and we reach this giant patch of tall grass. This grass is almost as tall as the dog, not that that's saying much; but still, it was a nice grassy area, where if the dog pooped, my inability to clean it up would not have been quite as terrible. The dog struts around a bit, piddles a bit, and then is happily on its way.

Yes! I mentally rejoiced as we turned around the corner. The dog didn't need to poop!

And no sooner did I think this than the dog suddenly stopped and hunched over the sidewalk.

"No way," I growled under my breath as the dog continued hunching, its eyes bulging farther than normal. "You have got to be kidding me..."

And then, the stupid dog pooped directly on the sidewalk. (Suffice it to say, I was not pleased.)

Apparently, that is this dog's gift in life: urinating where people want it the least. For example, my host mom's daughter took the dog with her for one (blissful, quiet, peaceful) night, and the dog apparently peed on her carpet. And yesterday, my host mom yelled at the dog, and it went and peed on her bed. (I told you I was begrudgingly impressed.) This made my host dad then yell at the dog, too-- and then the dog peed again.

The best part of this whole thing is that I've gotten to listen to my host mother grumbling "Impudent" over and over again in bad English. Watching her wave her finger at the dog and call it a hooligan is also quite amusing. She says that she's been counting the minutes until her sister comes back and takes the dog away.

This conversation, however, brought us to cat ladies. Turns out, my host mom knew a lady who had seven cats, and treated each of them like royalty. Each one had their own water bowl, their own litter box, their own food dish. But here's the crazy part: one cat liked meat; one cat liked fish; one cat liked canned food; one cat liked dry food; and so on, and so forth-- and this lady bought each cat what it liked (meat for the cat who liked meat, fish for the cat that liked fish, etc.), and she herself only ate bouillon soup. Seriously! The cats ate better than she did!

My host mom said the stench from the lady's apartment made it nigh-impossible to go into her apartment. The neighbors could smell from the inside of her apartment, too, but there was nothing they could do; Russia doesn't have the pet-limiting laws like in the US.

So, now you know. Certainly explains the crazy cat lady in Moscow who has 113 cats in one teeny-tiny apartment...