How I narrowly avoided disaster

[bamademo]

I've been really poor this last month. I mean going to food banks, having cable cut off, emptying change out of old purses poor. But my pets have not gone without food. Out of the blue, Fed Ex shows up delivering an envelope. I open the front door and my sweet brother has sent me a 3000 dollar check. In my elation, I forget to lock the front door back. I leave to deposit check, go to the grocery store and buy groceries for my friend who is nearly as broke as I am but fed me when I was hungry.

I'm at her house, I get a call from the police. My front door was open and they went in and cleared the house. They then informed me they were going to take my dogs due to animal cruelty! I asked why. Well, they are eaten up with fleas. I talk them out of it and told them I hadn't been working but had just started back and was picking up my first check tomorrow. He gives me 7 days to get them to the vet and the shots up to date. I agree and was calling my cable company to pay and have cable back on when police call back and say they are going to issue warrant for my arrest for animal cruelty if I don't take care of by tomorrow.

I have a springer who is 15 and the officer said was skin and bones. I told him I go without food so my dogs can eat and they have food and water and the springer has no teeth. He said Rosco had hot spots. He said the house was hot. My AC is broken. I explained all this and said I was a member of the humane society. See where this is going? What if if had not had the money? I would have been arrested or had my dogs taken away. I would have police record that would prevent further employment. It would have been in the paper. So tomorrow I have an appointment at 5 to have the animals vaccinated and have to take paperwork to police by 10 AM Saturday. Which I had planned on doing anyway since I finally had some money.

Now I know why people become homeless. Perfect storms of beauracracy. The dogs are fed, watered and have shelter. But I was going to be charged with animal cruelty because of fleas.

[roody]

1. Since when do cops give a poop about dogs?

I have to rescue the abused ones around my house.

[jwirr]

9. Cops care about anything that will give them an excuse: loose cigaretes, jay walking, setting on a

bench. Any little excuse.

[randome]

33. Different cops, different people. Or 'Cops are people, too, my friend.'

Last week I phoned in a dog left in a car in the Wal-Mart lot. The engine was running so the air conditioning was likely on but I sure wasn't going to open the door to find out.

Someone else in the parking lot suggested calling the police so I put my indecision away and called.

The car was gone by the time the police arrived but they seemed singularly uninterested in my having dragged them there. The officer in the driver's seat blithely stated that while it might not be smart, it wasn't animal cruelty. He said this with the knowing air of a long-serving municipal judge instead of, oh, I don't know, thanking me for my concern.

So go figure. Different people, different cops.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Don't ever underestimate the long-term effects of a good night's sleep.[/center][/font][hr]

[GeorgeGist]

2. Small blessings ...

the cops care about dogs in you community. Some places they just shoot them.

[bamademo]

3. The irony of the whole thing is that it would not have happened if I hadn't gotten a check.

Which I was going to use part of to buy flea medication. I have had to borrow money from friends for pet food.

[roody]

22. Dr. Bronners peppermint and

eucalyptus soap kills fleas. Non toxic too.

[logosoco]

4. So basically being poor is a crime.

I am so sorry you were treated that way.
I wish the best for you and your dogs!

[elleng]

26. Yes, 'The law, in its majestic equality

forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.' Anatole France

[gwheezie]

5. thank goodness for the check

Being poor can crush anyone.
This year I've had a biblical flea problem. I've had my house treated and my yard treated, the dogs treated repeatedly. I think the fleas have mutated. The only thing that has helped a bit is the oral flea control meds but the fleas are back before they are due for the net dose. I am hoping for a hard frost this winter. My vet told me though the last few years due to our warmer winters the bug die off hasn't happened.
I hope things turn around for you. I've been homeless,you see it coming and scramble to do anything to stop it and it rolls over you.
Interesting about the ac, somehow when I was growing up we didn't have ac, we had animals, adults, old people, babies all manage to live through it. So having no ac can be used against someone as animal cruelty?

[WinkyDink]

32. VERY iteresting point about AC. Qhen I was a kid, my family would sleep on lawn chairs outside!

[bamademo]

6. It's cooler outside the house and I haven't been letting the dogs in due to fleas. I live in Bama..

You can imagine how hot it gets. Back yard has lots of trees. But to be charged with animal cruelty over something I had no control over?

I used to work in IT and I have a degree. Now I work 2 or 3 days a week at a job paying 8.50 an hour in school lunchrooms. I dish out slop, put slop on pans to be cooked and wash dishes. I have applied for foodstamps.

And yes, if you are poor, they will roll over you and you'll end up on the street.

[hollysmom]

7. well, I have been very lucky, and very careful - no dog is allowed into my house if it scratches its

I sat out side with one dog for over an hour combing it over and over and putting the comb in a bowl of soapy water until all the fleas are gone. I had fleas once and never want to have it again. I think I got over 20 fleas off that dog. Luckily no fleas in my backyard this year.

If you use rosemary and garlic oil, fleas are not interested. Ticks I don;t know about, I never take this one into the woods like I did the white and patient one. I could check her in a minute. Only got one tick in 14 years.

With the fleas in the house, I used borax in the floors, and baking soda on the rugs, and then shampooed the rugs with a rug doctor from the store. and vacuumed over and over and vacuumed flea powered every day after vacuuming to kill any fleas in the vacuum.

ETA - And to address what you posted
I am sorry this happened to you. It is a crime to be poor in this country. maybe it will be easier to fight the flea problem if you can confine the dogs to the kitchen. No rugs, no upholstered furniture. For sure never allow them into your bedroom. There are food programs for dog owners run by some shelters here, so you can both eat in the future, check and see. The shelters want to keep ans many pets in homes as possible. There are also some vets who do pro bono work, the shelters might be ale to help you with that too.

[bamademo]

8. I have fleas in the house but got rid of most of them. But fleas are inevitable in the South....

Even with flea medication.

[hollysmom]

12. oh, the south,

I always lived in the north, people tried to tempt me to move south, but the whole bug thing stopped that.
does this mean the thing I added about shelters and dog food does not work for you? Heck in this town we even have free summer playgrounds where you can drop your kid off for the day, not the dog though, so I am probably spoiled rotten. This is an expensive town, to live in, but if you live in affordable housing - i.e. the rent controlled apartments that allow pets, there are 3 church food banks, the family service where you get clothes, linens and toys for vouchers if you earn under a level, and lots of free medical services - indicating bad things or lots of help. I hope there are services you can use as well. They even offer free dog shots if you can arrange your schedule.

I hope that you can find someone to help. Maybe a private pet rescue group that can offer you some share of their discounts?

[bamademo]

13. We have these services in Huntsville, AL as well.

I was a member of an animal rescue group. I have gotten them out of shelters, fostered them and taken them for transport to airports for Pilots for Paws. That's why is so ironic that I'm being threatened with an arrest warrant for animal cruelty over fleas. They could ruin my life over parasitic insects.

[daredtowork]

10. Perfect Storm of Bureaucracy - Exactly!

This is what I've been saying! (as someone on welfare)

People on the edge of poverty don't get the help they need from Social Services and other government programs that are supposed to help them: they get dragged down by the bureaucracy! They get sucked into a vortex of paperwork, a million appointments, a million lines of small print, a million 3-day deadlines, a million contradictory rules, a million phone trees with inability to get to a human being to get any questions answered, and a million implied threats for non-compliance. If you're already on the edge of homelessness and in a medically precarious situation, this is an intolerable amount of stress! You need to cook your food, but you get no direct cash to pay that bill, and nothing but threats about what will happen to you if you try to earn that cash. You are required to go to appointments, but you aren't supplied any bus tickets! You are drowning, and people just stare at you blankly as you run everywhere pleading for help!

This is the "cognitive bandwidth" problem that academics are talking so ponderously about. This is why being on welfare is the equivalent of losing 13 IQ points or losing a night's sleep.
http://www.socialworkdegreecenter.com/poverty/

This is why the "welfare problem" isn't just about how all the money has been siphoned out of the system while everyone has been looking away. As it is now, the welfare system is a *form of torture*. It is *inhumane*. China could look at it today and berate the U.S. on our Human Rights violations, because nothing in the system is geared toward helping people climb out of poverty: it's all a giant machine grinding them down further into poverty, toward homelessness, and the stress causes mental and physical medical problems as well that just makes things harder.

Want to help people get out of poverty in your community? SHINE A LIGHT ON THE WELFARE RULES IN THAT COMMUNITY! You will be horrified at the machine for torture that the light reveals.

[bamademo]

11. I'm beginning to experience this first hand. You have to have gas to get to a food bank.

You have to have gas to go fill out paperwork. You have to have internet for a job. You have to have a phone for a job.
And now you have to keeps your pets flea free to keep from going to jail.

[daredtowork]

14. Yes to that and more

The more financial strain you are under, the more you discover that there are necessities that everyone takes for granted - light bulbs, toilet paper, tampons, aspirin, basic cleaning supplies.

Also, many of the people giving you "advice" and "helping" you will be imposing costs on you and giving you the stink eye if you don't do exactly what they say if you don't have the money for it. Thus you are supposed to have work-ready clothing and proper hygiene supplies, get your hair dyed and professionally cut, "prioritize" to buy good walking shoes so you will get some exercise, return long distance calls from recruiters who assume everyone has a cell phone, get to places without bus money, sign and return documents without printer/envelope/stamps...well, the list goes on and on.

Recently I got the renewal notice for my California ID. This is required for everything from getting a job to securing Medi-Cal. Is it free for people on welfare with NO DIRECT CASH INCOME? No, it's offered "at a discount".

It's laughable how many things in California are offered "at a discount" to people who are DENIED DIRECT CASH INCOME. Gas for heat and cooking - discounted. Phone landline - discounted. Before the Affordable Care Act kicked in this January all medications - absolutely vital ones - were discounted! (They were free if you could get on Medi-Cal, but before the ACA kicked in, the bureaucracy did everything in its power to block people from getting on Medi-Cal). Whenever I tried to explain I had no cash income, I was told to "prioritize" and "save up". How do you save up NOTHING?!

I'll tell you what's going on here. Everyone knows that no one can survive on the welfare rules as written. So they expect you are begging or prostituting yourself or engaging in some criminal activity - that's what you're supposed to "save up". WHAT KIND OF SYSTEM EXPECTS YOU TO BE BEGGING AND STEALING ON THE SIDE JUST TO SURVIVE?

I'm doing everything but somersaults and setting myself on fire to try to get people to look at this problem. Yet even most progressives remain apathetic and silent. I don't get it. It's not like I'm another political shill trying to shake them down for money. I just want them to open their eyes and LOOK. I know once they look, once they really see how ridiculous the welfare situation is, they will feel conscience bound to put welfare policy on the table. It's a Human Rights issue, right here on US soil.

[roody]

23. This should be an OP.

[daredtowork]

25. Thanks, I've made a few similar ones already

I just keep trying to underscore the main points in my comments.

Hopefully it will eventually sink in that certain aspects of the welfare "system" are untenable and are in fact engineered to torture people on welfare rather than help them in any way.

[Egnever]

15. I would reconsider the cable.

A good internet connection is usually much cheaper and you can find tons of programming free online to watch.

[daredtowork]

17. btw I'm confused by the "threat to free TV" commercials

After the big switch to digital TVs a few years back, can people still get local channels with antenna?

Also, I'm confused as to what the threat is. When I read it, all I saw was something about cable providers moving local channels up to premium packages. That would make local channels more costly for people who buy cable packages, but it wouldn't affect those people who are just picking up the channels via antenna.

People should have a way of getting certain local content for free - especially news. But it would be nice to see a spirited revival of PBS in this country as well - carrying culture to every corner, as it were.

[Egnever]

18. I am pretty sure that local channels must be carried on basic levels

http://www.fcc.gov/guides/choosing-cable-channels

Tiers

Cable companies generally are required to offer a basic service tier that companies typically require all subscribers to purchase before subscribing to additional video programming. The basic service tier requirement includes, at a minimum, the local broadcast television stations and the public, educational and governmental (PEG) access channels that the operator may be required to offer pursuant to an agreement with the local government. After complying with these minimum requirements, the cable operator may offer additional programming as part of the basic service tier.

Haven't seen the commercials you are talking about I cut my cable years ago. One of the nice things about getting programming from the web is that the advertising is cut way down.

[daredtowork]

19. It's this thing

Here it is:

http://keepmytv.org/

Looks sleazy and corporate to me. But perhaps it's just because I don't know what's behind it, and I'm automatically wary of what I don't understand.

[Egnever]

20. Strange

did you see the bottom of that page?

© 2014 National Association of Broadcasters....

Edit for more info

Registrant ID:5462107-NSIV
Registrant Name erfect Privacy, LLC
Registrant Organization:National Assocation of Broadcasters
Registrant Street: 12808 Gran Bay Parkway West
Registrant City:Jacksonville
Registrant State/Province:FL
Registrant Postal Code:32258
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:[phone]
Registrant Phone Ext:

Seems odd they would be arguing with themselves?

[daredtowork]

21. They are running a lot of TV commercials

I'd really like to understand this issue since they are making a bid for the votes of the elderly and the poor.

I'm certainly all for free TV.

But I'm wondering if I'm being punked somehow here because of the sponsors.

[Stardust]

28. You don't need cable to pick up basic networks. You need a set-top antenna device (that resemble

"rabbit ears.&quot My son has one. PM me if you want me to research it for you. It's late now but I'll look into it tomorrow. Promise.

As trite as this may sound, I really do feel your pain. I went down that road many years ago and more recently painfully watched a dear relative and several friends struggle with poverty and the agregious welfare system they are sentenced to dealing with, day in, day out. And there's never, ever a break from the ordeal. Grinding, grinding you down until the indomitable will to live and thrive is slowly but surely quieted.

[Liberal_in_LA]

16. what an ordeal. glad u have the funds to takes animals to the vet now

[Joe Shlabotnik]

24. Best wishes,

for you and the dogs. I've been there, and I know its tough.

[BainsBane]

27. How were the police able to go in your house?

Firstly, I'm sorry about your situation. It's heart-breaking. I'm so glad your brother sent you some money.

Will you have to pay fines on top of your economic difficulties? I so wish you luck finding better work. It must be so difficult in Alabama.

May I ask, how did the police happen to come to your house? Could they enter legally because the door was open? By open do you mean wide open or simply unlocked? The dogs were in the backyard? Do you think a neighbor made a complaint about the dogs?
Please keep us posted.

FYI, you said you had a degree. When I was unemployed I scored achievement tests for a company called Pearson. They have it set up so you can do it from home. They don't have it all the time but only you can get on the list for when they do have tests to score. I expect they coincide with the k-12 testing season. You need to prove you have a Bachelor's degree and take some simple math and English tests. I see there are options to score SAT's too and test development opportunities. You can read what the qualifications are.

http://www.pearsonassessments.com/careers/test-development-job-opportunities.html

As for saving money, I cut cable three months ago. You can watch a lot of shows through this site for completely free. DO NOT DOWNLOAD the media installer it links to. That is totally unnecessary. You can stream them online. http://www.solarmovie.is/tv/

I wish you the best. Please keep us posted.

[whistler162]

29. So the officer saw a possible problem

i.e. your open door. Checked it out, as is their job. Found your dogs in what he felt was a possibly neglected situation. Was able to contact you. Gives you a chance to fix the problems. Superior, most likely, cut the time allotted to fix the problem down.

One of those damned if he does and damned if he doesn't situations.

If you had been lying on the floor either from a accident or an attack and he had ignored the open door the same DU'rs would be screaming about him not doing his job.

[BainsBane]

31. What most DUers are doing here

Is showing concern for the OP. Why you think this is about the reputation of police, I can't begin to imagine. How about some compassion? I don't know how it's possible to read this story and not feel for bamademo. S/he hasn't been eating to save food for the dogs. Did you get that?

[BainsBane]

30. How goes everything?

Did you sort things out with the police?

[bamademo]

34. See my updated post on outcome. Everything is groovey.

Dogs got shots. I spent an hour cleaning fleas off my dog and she was covered with them. I understand the concern. I met officer and he was happy with me.

It's a struggle since I got laid off and unemplyment ran out to take care of everything. Depression is a fact of life for me but it's getting better. I'm under-employed at a horrible job but I get a paycheck.

I made friends with animal control officer and the vet vouched for me.

[roody]

36. Please link to your update.

Glad things got better.

[L0oniX]

35. Get a digital antenna and forget the cable bill.