we hit a bit of a snag...

i have a story to tell you that just now has an ending. sometimes i tell stories when they’re still in the middle bits, but some stories need an ending, i think, before you can share them.

let’s start, shall we?

several weeks ago a woman rented one of our cottages for two weeks. things were normal, and then following a four day long weekend (gotta love those teacher professional development days making long weekends extra long!), i got a call from my neighbour at the small cottage.

you are currently renting it out to someone with a dog, aren’t you?

Yes, his name is x.

well, i’m worried because i haven’t seen anyone let the dog out in at least two days and there is dog mess all over the floors. he’s clearly been using the washroom in the cottage.

when we get up there, i call the local police to come and do a wellness check with us, but it turns out, the woman who rented it? yeah, she rented it for her daughter, a regular crack and heroin user and heavy drinker, based on what was left lying about. and her daughter? not there. in total, the dog was left there alone for five or 6 days. she ended up picking up her dog…and then left all of her stuff there.

airbnb cancelled their reservation, but she wouldn’t go. check out day came and went, still didn’t go, and her stuff remained until three days past checkout when we went and moved it out ourselves.

throughout there has been a lot of lying, which i understand is common with addicts, but it’s still sad. and her mother refused to respond to my messages via the airbnb app, though she had booked it, fully knowing this could be the result.

and that’s what happens with addicts, isn’t it? they often burn through all their support systems who get tired of the money and time and the lies and empty promises.

she said, we used to have a nice house and a big fenced yard for the dog, but then something bad happened.

the local police suggested we put her stuff at the curb and tell her if she wanted it to pick it up before garbage day. but that doesn’t take into account the challenges of being an addict does it? she’s literally not capable to getting her stuff, even if she wants to. and the thing is, she’s still a person, and this is still her stuff, and she deserves better than that, even if she and her absent mother have made my life an absolute nightmare for a week and a half.

i don’t want to have to worry about finding drug foils when i am packing up her stuff.

i don’t want to have to worry about accidentally touching something laced with fentanyl.

i don’t want to have to be doing this at all.

but who else is going to? we don’t have any social supports in society except each other, really. who else is there to pack up her things? who else is going to find a place to store them for her, especially when the advice the authorities give you is to just throw it out. of course i WANT to throw it out, who wouldn’t be angry after having to deal with this? who wouldn’t want to punish this person? to be rid of their stuff and the problem of them? and for her mother to put me in this position? that’s not right either, but i imagine she’s also done with her daughter.

over a week now out of moving her stuff out and she messaged with a storage unit number and a key with the concierge. we packed her stuff back up and moved it from my parents, who had generously offered to keep it, to her storage unit.

it’s all so much more than i wanted to do. it’s so much more than i had the time or energy to do. and playing catch up really genuinely sucks.

i just don’t know. how does she even stay safe? how does she keep her dog with her? how does she keep her dog safe? as much as she wants to keep him, would he be better off at a shelter? he bounded back into the cottage each time we let him out, eager to be back with his stuff, with his person’s stuff.

it lingers.

n xx