the things we do for cash

Never in my life did I think I would be so happy to see an envelope with a few hundred dollar bills in it. Who wouldn't want to get one of those, right? Well, I did get one, only I didn't find it, I worked for it. For the past month or so and for the next few as well, I have a few extra expenses...namely furniture and plane tickets. :) So, I had been praying and thinking about ways to earn some extra cash. House/pet sitting is something I have done before and while it requires work, it typically isn't overwhelming or completely time consuming. So, you can imagine my joy when I get a call that a family I know needs a pet sitter for their 2 dogs for more than a week. The dogs are big but are really cute and well behaved, and so I quickly agree.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through my journey now, and while things have gone well, I was not prepared for one particular task. Tomorrow (thursday) is trash day...no big deal...gather up the trash from all the cans and wheel the big can out to the curb in the morning before I leave. Got it. No problem. Only...wait...I have to what? poop what? So, one of my tasks was to go through the back yard and scoop the poop that has been gathering there for almost a week and put it in a specific bag and then put that in the trash. So, in my head, I'm thinking that it can't be that bad. Well, I was wrong. It can. Fresh dog poop coupled with rain and an inexperienced scooper (me!) is a recipe for a hot mess. Wearing flip-flops was probably the first bad idea. I had to tiptoe through the wet grass and try to make sure I don't step in what I'm supposed to be scooping. Then, as I go from "spot" to "spot," it is clear that certain places are more wet than others and some of it starts smearing. Then, as I lean down to get a big scoop full scoop, the handle breaks off of, and I almost fall into the pile of crap. As I struggle to catch my balance, I lean against the broom thing and sure enough, in the same motion, I break that handle in half as well. So, at that moment, I am hating my life and second guessing what made me think this was a good idea. During these moments, I have to remind myself of the envelope of cash that awaits me on the other side of this chore.

Well, I did the best I could and eventually finished with literally 5 lbs of POO. I couldn't believe it. That's a lot of crap. As I turned on the TV to relax and celebrate my accomplishment, I flipped past a show I had never heard of before called Househusbands. It made me laugh that the episode was about how animals were annoying these guys and though their wives loved the pets, the men HATED them and were tired of keeping up with them, especially cleaning up their crap. It made me laugh out loud. So, what's the point of all of this? Well, there's not one except for this...I definitely DO NOT WANT PETS that poo anytime soon. I don't want poo on my carpet, butts on my couch, or pee in my kitchen. I just don't. Maybe that will change one day, but for now the answer is NO! I also thought the title, "the things we do for cash" was pretty funny since it is true. I did it for the cash. I also thought of another one. "Sass in the City." We'll start there next time...