The Viziers Elephant

So, I am sick. I have a pretty bad cough, along with asthma-like symptoms. I've been this way for three weeks now. Prior to that, I had the flu for a week, and before that, sinus trouble including major headaches and just generalized misery. The sinus thing has been steadily growing since around December.

What is the cause you ask?

Well, after finally visiting the doctors office in Chico and undergoing treatment for asthma, it appears that an outside stimulus, probably centered around the location where I was staying while going to school, is the likely culprut.

My theory...

It was last November that my roommate in Chico got a little dog from the neighbor. He was cute and pretty harmless at first. But, my roommate confessed to not knowing how to potty train a dog, and set out to try several different techniques he found on the internet. Well, despite investment in puppy pads and various sprays and such, the dog still consistantly urinated on the carpet outside my room, and deficated in the front room. It seems that the one thing that my roommate wasn't willing to invest in to potty train the dog was his time and consistancy. Needless to say, this led to a very very unsanitary living condition at that apartment.

On top of this, I grew to not like the dog. He was ill-mannered and fairly unintelligent with a poor personality. He had developed a "princess" complex where he could get away with anything as long as my roommate was around, and the dog knew it. If I dared to deal with the dog myself, my roommate would get mad at me. Eventually, I banned him from my room because he would steal things from my room and chew them up, but my roommate would not honor the ban, and would let the dog in whenever he entered my room. Because of this, as I said before, the dog got the idea that he could get away with anything as long as my roommate was around.

Which leads me to my next problem with the dog, when his master left for any reason, and for any length of time, he would howl and cry unceasingly, loud enough for everyone in the apartment complex to hear. Heck, once I was driving in the parking lot and I could hear the dog whining. This became a serious problem when I became really sick, and the dog would carry on while I was trying to sleep.

The worst insult came in the fact that my roommate would get really mad at me for not liking his dog. It's as if he thought that I didn't like him because I hated his pet. He would try to force me to love the animal by tossing him on me or shaming me into giving him affection. He even suggested that I let the dog sleep with me in order to keep him from howling. I couldn't even stand to pet the dog, he would lick and drool on me incessantly, he had this horrible habit of deepthroating my thumb, and if I wasn't paying attention he would even try to hump my arm. Not to mention, that most of the time he smelled pretty bad. Keep in mind, this is coming from a person that likes dogs over any other pets.

So, long story short, my constant sickness forced me to leave my apartment and come home to try to recover. My professors have graciously extended my time for getting my assignments done and such. Now I just have to get my health back, which I must say is improving every day that I am away from that apartment. I believe that it was partly stress related, but mostly it was living in the unsanitary conditions and breathing in that toxic stench every day.

It's been said that I can smell things better than other people, and that I am more sensitive to odors or unclean conditions. It's a blessing and a curse. But, I am certain that my roommate simply allowed this to occur because he didn't know it was so bad. Often, he would clean up crap in the front room because he would hear me coughing and gagging all the way back in my room from the smell.

Of final note, when my roommate adopted his little dog, we adopted his brother from the same litter, and he lives with us here in the mountains. He has none of the ill manners, problems with separation and he is housebroken.

Oh, and if your wondering about the title of this post, I suggest you read the story by the same title. It sums up well the problems that someones pet can cause without them even realizing it. As a note, I never even considered dealing with the problem in the same manner that the villagers in the story did.