I’ve been a busy bee the last 24 hours or so. I’ve been using my StumbleUpon toolbar to “stumble” all the blogs listed under “Blogs I read daily via Google Reader” and “Australian Blogs Community” in my sidebar. So if you’re in there, you’ve been stumbled my friends. ;)
The reason I have been keeping myself busy is.. I had a major disappointment yesterday.
You may recall back in May, I wrote about my heart being broken when a house in the place I want to live turned out to be too small. I don’t usually like to make the same mistake twice, but yesterday I did it without even realizing it. Last Tuesday when we went looking at houses we’d seen this one that looked like it might work for us. It was very close to the beach in a quite peaceful area. I called the real estate lady and asked if we could arrange to look at it, and we made it for Monday next week.
I was pretty excited because it looked big enough to fit all our stuff in, and it was solid brick – many of the homes where we want to live are weatherboard or generally beach shacks you couldn’t live in during a winter. Sephy fired up Google Earth for me and he sent me a photo which had me daydreaming of beach walks every day taking my camera with me.
The house is somewhere in this pic. ;)
By the time the other half got home from work, I’d already mentally packed all our stuff and moved in to the place. He had received a phone call from the real estate lady saying she had been in contact with the owners and they’d had a bad experience with cats and they wouldn’t accept us as tenants, so there was no point even looking at the house.
I was completely shocked. The next thing I know my eyes started to water all on their own and I was bawling. It sounds stupid to you guys I guess, but there is such a strong urge in me to go and live near that bay. After the tears, I started to get angry. Our cats have never done any kind of damage to a house. They have cat towers, they are desexed, they don’t pee on the carpet, they are well looked after. The worst they might have done is fur up a curtain, but that comes out in the wash.
Even worse – the current tenants clearly had young kids. So if I’d had kids instead of cats, it would be fine. I don’t have human babies, I have feline ones, so I can’t live there. It seems to me this is discrimination, and completely unfair. If they said to a couple with kids, sorry you have kids, you can’t live here, imagine the outcry!
Funnily enough it happened almost exactly two months after the last time.
“There’s nothing like work for getting over a disappointment” from Memoirs of a Geisha. I have to say, it really works. :) I’m feeling a lot better already. And it benefits all you guys in my sidebar as well because you might see some traffic from Stumbleupon now.. I hope you do. ;)
I’m always amazed – and irritated – at people’s prejudices about cats.
Kids can be *far* more destructive than any kitty.
I’m sorry about the house. :( Here’s hoping you find the perfect place.
exactly. in my experience it’s been the children who pee on the floor.
So sorry. What a disappointment.
That really sucks. We had such a hard time renting places when we had a dog, and I can attest to the fact that human babies can cause WAY more damage that feline/canine ones.
Hang in there, friend.
You’ll find the right place, it just takes time (this is from the woman with kids & pets.) It’ll happen.
Pieces Of Mind – I do find it amazing that people can be so anti a certain kind of animal. I’ve been bitten by dogs twice. That makes me wary of them, but it does not make me hate them as a species.
My cats aren’t perfect, I’m not blind to their possible faults, but we offered to have it put in the lease that we would pay for any damage. And, you have to pay a security bond here anyway, so it’s not like they wouldn’t have the money to cover it if something did happen.
They are cutting off their nose to spite their face, because if they’d stopped to think for a second they would realize that the other half works in a store where they could replace all their electrical appliances at cost price. ;) And by the looks of the pics I saw, they’re going to need a new dishwasher soon.
We installed a split system airconditioner into the bedroom here. It cost us over $1,000, but to us it’s been worth it. We always install a sprinkler system to make it easier to water stuff. We don’t intend to ask for any money for these things when we leave. We’re excellent tenants. ;)
Liv – Mine too. ;) I have two nephews..
Sober Briquette – thanks ;) I just have to be pro-active about this now.
Christine – I’d like to rescue a greyhound. I’ve been saying it ever since we moved here. There’s so many great beaches to walk on. But if we had two cats AND a dog? We’d have real trouble finding a home.
Wendy – I didn’t expect it would take this long when we started the search two months ago. I’ve been sitting back saying the house will turn up, and it hasn’t. ;( But you are right, it WILL. ;)
Thanks for your comments everyone, they are much appreciated. ;)
As a longtime renter, I feel your pain. We had a dog for 13 years and he only caused a little bit of damager, EVER. Good luck with your search… You know, we’ve been in the same house for 11 years and I STILL look at every for rent sign and wonder. I think it is in my blood now.
The last few days there haven’t been any new homes listed in the area I want to live.. so it is quite painful right now.. ;(
Thanks Mary LUE for your comment! ;)
Well, that’s a shame. It makes me realize how LUCKY I am to have found this place I rent, with my NINE cats, and one dog! I may have used a somewhat lower number of cats when I signed the lease… a couple of the cats are small, so they’re sort of like half a cat each, I figure.