Receptionist answering the phone: It’s a great day at Keller Williams, how may I help you?

Kristie: She should really stop telling people that. This isn’t a great day AT ALL. It’s a BAD, BAD day at Keller Williams!

Lord, have mercy, this process just about killed me. And the punches kept right on coming until the very end.

My father drove an hour to get here by 3:00 to sign those papers. He took the whole day off so he’d be available when the call came to schedule the time. I left work early. My realtor reserved the conference room for the entire frikkin day so we could finally end this nightmarish transaction.

At 3:30 the title company called. The closing agent was already 30 minutes late and he wouldn’t be coming because my HUD1 was still not released.

What?!? This morning we were told that it HAD been released and we were good to go at 3!!!

After many phone calls and a near meltdown by your’s truly, we decided to leave the office and wait for the call saying the HUD1 had been released. The closing agent was on standby and could be at the office within 30 minutes.

I was pretty much resigned to the fact that closing wasn’t gonna happen today. My real estate agent tried one more thing. He called my lender, the lady who has been able to get everything done so far, and within minutes we got the call saying the HUD1 was released! I was so relieved. But..we had to reschedule closing for 7:30 because the closing agent needed to get the closing packet together.

My dad and I came home and I walked the dogs. We had decided to meet my agent at 6 to do a quick walk thru of the house to make sure no one had broken in and wrecked the place. When my dad and I got to the house my agent was there and frantically waving his arms. The closing agent had called, he wanted us there NOW to sign.

I was like wait..we can be left hanging for three months but he can’t wait two hours?

But I was anxious to get this done so we went! And the closing agent was there before us! It turns out that the title company scheduled closing with us at 3, told the closing agent 5, the closing agent showed up right after we left, was then told about the 7:30 appointent, and he freaked…because it’s his daughter’s birthday.

Signing took about 20 minutes. We all shook hands and went our merry way. My dad headed home, I came back to Rich’s and was excited to be able to tell the girls I was done early…but they were picked up by their dad for the weekend already.

I ate some dinner and Rich and I went to the house and walked around. I have somehow aquired a gas powered moped. It’s in my back yard. and…someone cut my grass. The last time I was there it was long and nasty looking. I’m grateful for that.

I’m heading to bed soon…I have to be up at 7 to get ready to move!

Finally, I have a home of my own.

I am going to miss Rich though. I’m used to him coming home and being with us at night. Sleeping alone will take some getting used to. I’ll be happy to be in my own bed again though. Rich’s is hard as a rock!

EDIT: 3:00!!!

So I was all relieved because I got the final clear to close and everyone was buzzing around trying to figure out what time this is gonna happen today when I opened my work email.

The seller has to release my HUD1. Nothing can be scheduled until that happens.

I swear if it’s not one thing it’s another.

So here I am, back to not worrying again.

My agent is setting up a time for settlement tomorrow afternoon.

Thank you, God.

If I lived in Ohio right now I have no idea what I’d do. The way this is written…90 days after this law is passed Jezebel would be one of thousands of dead dogs in the rendering barrells at animal control. For no other reason than she was born a Pit Bull.

My first instinct would be to run. But how? 90 days to find a job, a house, register my kids for school? Just to keep my dog? Would I try? Probably not because I know I’d never be able to do it in that amount of time. I’d have no choice but to either give her to animal control…or take her to the vet and put her down myself.

That’s what Pit Bull owners are facing. Allowing their dogs to be killed by strangers in a high stress situation…or allow their dogs to be held and loved during the last seconds of their lives so they can go peacefully.

Rich’s son has boxers. The way this law is written…if Animal Control decides that his dogs look like they might have Pit Bull mixed in them…he will lose his dogs the same way.

“Ohio House Bill 568, introduced by Representative Tyrone Yates of Cincinnati, seeks to prohibit the ownership, keeping, or harboring of a dog that “belongs to a breed that is commonly known as a pit bull dog.” Furthermore, if this bill is passed and adopted into law, all such dogs will be seized and euthanized. It is imperative that all concerned dog owners in Ohio contact their elected representatives and express their vehement opposition to this draconian legislation.”
HB 568 unacceptably provides that:
* No person shall own, keep, or harbor a dog that belongs to a breed that is commonly known as a pit bull dog.
* No later than 90 days after the effective date of this bill, a person who owns, keeps, or harbor a pit bull dog will be forced to surrender the dog to a dog warden.
* Within ten days of surrender, the dog warden shall euthanize the dog.
* If an officer has probable cause to believe that a dog is a pit bull, the officer may apply for a search warrant. After obtaining a search warrant, an officer shall seize the dog and transfer the dog to the dog warden, who shall euthanize the dog within 10 days.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
All concerned Ohio dog owners should contact their elected representatives and express their strong opposition to HB 568.
To find your elected representatives, click here.
For more information, please contact AKC’s Government Relations Department at (919) 816-3720, or e-mail doglaw@akc.org.

We’re losing the battle. I’m not in Ohio but I still feel like I’ve been sucker punched. Just thinking about all of the good dogs out there, a good portion of which are mistaken for Pit Bulls (American Bulldogs? Old English Bulldogs?), that will be dead before the end of the year makes me want to cry.

A couple days ago I was afraid that when Jezebel crosses the bridge I would choose to save a dog that isn’t a Pit Bull because it’s so hard. Now I’m afraid I won’t save a Pit Bull because there won’t be any left to save.

Have you ever gone shopping at Costco…when you’re hungry…and they’re giving out all those free samples? Yeah, me too, that’s how a fat chocolate cake (with shaved milk chocolate coating the top and sides) found its way to our house.

That thing made me so sick of chocolate cake I may never be able to eat it again. Just thinking about that cake makes my throat close up. Don’t get me wrong…it was good…it was just too much.

There’s still about 1/4 of it left. I might manage to choke down one more sliver but I probably won’t try.

� Continue Reading

I haven’t mentioned it because I don’t want to jinx it. This whole house-buying fiasco doesn’t need any help in the jinx department.

I ditched my old lender. The one who drug things out for three months. My loan officer? Was pissed off. He got so nasty all I could do was move pull the phone away from my ear, look at it, shake my head, and wait for him to finish ranting.

“Three months, Kristie. You’ve used me for THREE FUCKING MONTHS! My team and I did all this work for you and you have the NERVE to tell me you’re going with someone else? Is that really what you’re saying to me?”

I told him yes, it really was. I had to call his supervisor to get some of my loan stuff released to the new lender and it took about three days for everything to finally get transferred but I’m now completely done with them.

The reason I switched lenders wasn’t only because of how long the whole process was taking, though that should have been reason enough. My rate had been extended twice and that resulted in my being hit with a 1.5 point penalty. I couldn’t take that hit…and quite frankly I shouldn’t have had to.

The new lender was able to give me a better rate and my new loan officer is cracking the whip. She is ON people to get what she needs and my loan has already been approved by the first underwriter. It’s already in with the second underwriter and all that’s needed is an addendum stating who the owner of record is on the house now, which has nothing to do with my qualification. So…I will be closing on Friday. Moving in on Saturday. And this time I think it’s really going to happen.

I’m so excited! The girls are ready for their own rooms, they’re on each other’s nerves big time. And I’m ready to be able to park in a reserved for me only spot. The dogs are ready to be allowed to zoom around without being told to stop because there are downstairs neighbors. And I kind of miss some of my stuff…you know, the stuff that’s sitting in storage? Yeah, that stuff.

So, that’s what’s going on. I’m hoping to schedule closing early in the day so I can take the whole day off and get in there to clean (there won’t be time before moving day) my floors and the kitchen at least. And my dad wants to come over and look at my shower faucet, my garbage disposal, and my ac unit.

So close!

A member of Pit Bull-L had a horrendous day yesterday at the shelter where she works. She needed to vent and this is what she had to say to the former “owner” of a gorgeous, yet seriously unstable Pit Bull:

(I had an awful night last night at the shelter and since my methods of retaliation on this owner are illegal and he’s unwilling to educate himself, here’s an open letter).

Dear T.
I just wanted to congratulate you on having the biggest, bad ass pit bull in {blank}. Thank you for filling out the personality profile on your dog. It gave me a lot of insight as to why you are relinquishing your status symbol.

I learned that your dog hates cats, has lunged at people, dogs and kids while on a leash, has fought with injuries and has control of you completely. You state that you cannot touch his bones and he sleeps in bed with you at night. I also appreciate the fact that he bit the 2 guys that jumped you. What an awesome dog!

If he is such a wonderful loyal dog, why did you dump him and run?

Let me tell you what happened to “your buddy” after you relinquished him to us.

I went down to see him and found that the manager had gotten him into a crate he could easily break out of. I stood there not saying a word and all I saw was wide whale eyes, teeth, stiff body posture and a high wagging tail. I could feel his warm breath pass by my hand as he growled and barked at me.

I was the only one either stupid enough or brave enough to approach him. None of the other workers wanted to deal with your dog. In actuality, you achieved what you set out to do when you bred his bitch - people were afraid of this dog.

I did see how sweet he was when I crouched down next to the crate. He in typical pit bull fashion tried to ooze his body through the bars to be petted, tail wagging, licking my hand.

Then it was like someone flipped a switch. He lit up.

Since we are not really equipped to handle such strong powerful ferocious dogs, I painted a picture for the manager. By morning, this dog will have busted out of the crate he’s in, and if he felt like it, could jump into a run with another dog that ticked him off and killed it or chewed through the wooden door to go upstairs and kill a few of the free roaming cats. Then the morning person who would come in, may or may not be lucky to even get in the building not to mention the horror scene they would encounter after your dog had the run of the place for the night.

I highly recommended euthanasia.

So, I started to sedate him. He took the 75 mg of ace in the swiss cheese without incident. Hour later, he wasn’t even wobbly. So armed with a rabies pole, I got it around him and had a person who was scared to death of him hold the other end. I managed to get my arm through the bars to shoot him with 60 mg of ace IM.

While later I went down to be with him. I cried while he continued to growl, bark and warn me not to get near him. He eventually settled down enough that I was able to get another 60 mgs of ace in him IM.

We decided that the best way to transport him was in the crate. We covered the crate and loaded in into the truck. Since the crate was flimsy, one side started to come apart. As I reached to fix it, your big bad ass heavily sedated pit bull lunged at my hand.

We got him to the vets. Even the vet was a bit hesitant. He was heavily sedated, but was still able to stand, growl and snap at the vet. Again, we put the rabies pole around his head in which when he tried to bite it, it got caught in his mouth. As the vet was twisting the pole, I was praying that he would just pass out - it would be so much better if he’d just give in and pass out. But give in isn’t what pit bulls do. He fought every step of the way.

The vet was able to give him some telazole - and at least he went down for the moment. The vet pulled his leg through the bars to find a vein and he woke up with a vengeance - screaming, growling, fighting. I know how strong and powerful your bad ass pit bull is because I was holding the pole and crying the whole time.

We eventually helped your buddy cross the rainbow bridge.

The only time I was able to pet your dog and love on him - was after he passed. I cried all the way back to work, I cried as I stood there looking at his lifeless body in the crate, I cried as I carried him into the building to put him in a body bag. I was crying for the breed and what poor excuses for human beings have done to them.

Your buddy was the perfect example.

Thank you for producing the kind of pit bull that makes headlines. The one responsible for BSL. Thank you for making your dog a statistic.

And THANK YOU for putting me in the position to clean up your mess. I greatly appreciate it.

~Sarah

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you feel like a fat, ugly slob who is really hungry all the time and bored silly?

I’m having one of those weeks.

I find myself making coffee I don’t really want (but I drink it anyway), hunting around for (and eating) crap food that I also don’t want and definately don’t need, bored out of my freaking mind and wanting to read any one of the four books I have sitting here…but my eyeballs are too tired so I can’t. Right now I’m on the verge of propping my eyelids open with toothpicks.

I love my job but my concentration is lacking. I should walk the dogs and exercise but I don’t feel like it. I should work on my Pit Bull presentation but I don’t feel like it.

This actually sort of reminds me of how I used to feel before I sought out the shrinky doc and got regulated on my meds. I most certainly didn’t miss it and I wish it would go away again.

I think I need to detox. Seriously. Get all of the sludge out of my system, take some vitamins, and kick my own butt into a healthier routine. My Curves membership is up soon, I sent in my membership termination request today so I can join the gym at work. For $8 a month I can use all the fitness equipment and for $17 a month I can take the classes. That’s much better than the $50 a month I was paying for Curves. I loved Curves when I first joined and I kept up with it for about nine months but I haven’t been there since before Christmas. I need to get back into my exercise routine. There’s even a lady at work who would love for me to join her during lunch every day. I’m just too lazy. I hate how lazy I am.

Woe is me.