The "Tails" of House Hunting

Well, we braved the world of house hunting with a baby. It was something I was not looking forward to. I kept imagining little Jackson crying and crying because he didn't have a crib to sleep in.

I am glad to report that he was quite a trooper!

He got a little antsy on the drive, but not too bad. The weather was 106 degrees in Athens. It was a hot day in the neighborhood.

The first apartment we went to, we met the property manager of a rental company there. Let's call her Susan. Susan was a nice middle-aged lady, with a slight southern accent and a faint stench of cigarette smoke. She walked us up to the apartment and opened the door. She immediately closed it just as dogs started barking. Multiple dogs. She looked at us nerviously and felt compelled to explain.

"We kept calling the tenants to tell them we were coming at 12:30. They didn't answer though. We can still look around, but they have two doberman pinschers."

"We were told they are really nice. Are you okay with that?"

They didn't sound too nice.

Ryan and I kind of looked at each other and figured we would rather brave dogs than the blistering Georgia heat.

When we walked in, the 2 dogs barked and barked at us. Susan hesitantly told us, "You can go ahead and go on up the stairs and take a look around. I'll get these dogs situated." She hastily added on to the end, "But if I holler, come save me."

The apartment itself was nice, but to put it nicely, let's just say it was a pig sty! There was beer cans everywhere, urine in the toilet, random baby clothes everywhere, but no crib/highchair/anything else that a baby would need, and trash tossed every which way. I felt like I was trespassing.

We went back downstairs and the dogs decided that they liked us and started licking Jackson's feet. Susan wanted to show us the back deck of the apartment, but when she opened the door, the dogs bolted out. We quickly tried to catch them.

Imagine Ryan, the baby, and I trying to round up 2 random giant black dogs that we didn't know in 106 degree heat, while Susan yelled from the inside of the house. "Doggie! Doggie! It's too hot for you to stay out there! You'll melt!" As you can probably tell, Susan helped a lot.

When we left, Susan said, "You call me now if you are interested!"

No thanks, Susan. It was a fun adventure, but maybe a little too fun for us.

And then I found little black bugs crawling on me as we were leaving.

Yuck.

(On a side note: I am happy to report, we did find a great place! Hip hip hooray!)