Frustrations

It may seem odd that the first blog I write is about frustrations, but I really needed to clear my head before I explode!

I live in a house with three male roommates owned by my family. We live in a really nice, family-oriented neighborhood, but our backyard is not fenced off because my family finds it unnecessary to seek funds and put up a fence for the backyard if the plan is to keep the house for only another two years. Three of us have dogs and of the three dogs, two are potty trained. The dog that is not potty trained has a kennel that she can easily be placed in while no one is present in the house. However, my roommate finds it unnecessary to keep her in the kennel while he is gone, which results in the dog having "accidents" in the house. With all of the members of the household being college students, it is a constant battle trying to find the time to retreat back to the house and allow the dogs to relieve themselves. I have constantly confronted my roommate about my concerns of his dog having "accidents" in the house. He, however, finds it necessary to become defensive towards me about me expressing my concerns to him even though he is hardly ever home to take care of his dog and he has NEVER once had to clean up after his dog because he's never home!


Yesterday, he literally came home at 4:30pm and stayed for about an hour and a half to let his dog out and watch television on the couch. Then he left his dog roaming around the house and didn't come back until about 11pm later that night. I think I let his dog outside at least 5 times before I put her back in the kennel and before he came home that night. And to top everything off he left the house again with his dog roaming around freely. He sent me a message requesting that I not keep the dog in her kennel anymore because he claims that "I" keep her in there too much. I replied and said that I disliked the smell of rotten canine feces in the house ESPECIALLY when it was left sitting on the carpet too long. That's the worst because that's when the smell soaks into the carpet and it lingers in the house for days, weeks, sometimes even months. How can anyone tolerate living in a house that smells awful? I'm embarrassed to have people come over because it constantly smells like a dog kennel. He explained that he let his dog out three times that day and claims that she pooped twice, but honestly, how can you tell with a dog when you're never home to take care of her? I said that I would leave her kennel open, but if she pooped in the house again, I didn't want her to roam freely without him being home. He claims that I was "threatening" him, when clearly I wasn't. I was simply trying to compromise. He HATED the fact that I even made a suggestion. So I told him that it was probably better to find a place that would be better for her. He hated that idea too. He said that I was doing a bad job of handling the situation and that it wasn't the right way for roommates to communicate with one another.  I have talked to him about this problem several times in the past and have been very patient with him. To this day, nothing has been done to help out with this situation. He said that it wasn't a situation that should be "my way or the highway"

Excuse me, but this is my family's house and you pay rent. I literally was doing him a HUGE favor by letting him and his dog into our house. When he first came in he said that he would be looking for a place with a Master bedroom and a yard while he was living here, which obviously hasn't been happening. He even said that he would only live here until December 2010. It's April 2011.... what happened? I'm fed up and irritated to the max. Am I in the wrong?

Unfortunately, today, we will not be having a perfect smile