Forlorn…

Forgotten…

Foreclosed!

My next-door neighbor had to leave her home yesterday for an apartment. She had come on some bad times and was unable to get herself out of them so now she has gone. The house was in disrepair but it does have a guest house for potential income property, which is what she used it for.

One of the sadder results of this was that she had to take one of her two dogs to the Humane Society because she was above the size limit allowed at her new apartment. The dog was 11 years old and her owner thought she had a home lined up for her but, at the eleventh hour, it fell through. Despite tons of emails that she and I sent, no one wanted an older dog. The shelters and helpful organizations are full right now. She knows that it’s a very slim chance that her dog will get a new home but she’s in a predicament that many, many other people have been facing and felt she had no other options. We have 15 (mostly outdoor) cats, most of whom are dumpees themselves, and this dog is a cat-chaser so we couldn’t take her. Everyone had a reason why they couldn’t, even the owner’s relatives and close friends.

So now there’s just an empty, sad, bank-owned house next door and the uncertainty that it brings…will it become a crack house, a drop house, a wild party house, a house full of cat-haters, an abandoned eyesore, or what? It’s so tragic~people and animals losing their homes, homes that knew happier times sitting desolate and damaged. When will we feel the effects of the supposed end of the recession? Some people (and their unfortunate pets) will never recover from it.