Looking for something spicy.

Hej KP! Jag (30F) har ett problem med min arbetslagsledare (47F). Hon har en jävla förmåga att aldrig lyssna. Antingen avbryter hon så fort någon börjar prata, eller pratar på och berättar en historia som är löst kopplat till sammanhanget i ca 5 min tills vi rört oss vidare från ämnet. Som de flesta andra hatar jag att bli avbruten, till den punkt att det nog är min största pet peeve. Jag jobbar hårt med "ursäkta men nu pratar jag" eller "jag var inte klar" eller liknande. Den här arbetslagsledaren fattar dock inte nu såhär efter ett år utan fortsätter avbryta hela satans tiden. Hur ska man hantera dethär? Kommer brinna av en vacker dag och det känns inte särskilt professionellt..

Hi. We lost a very special 5-year-old member of the Fort Collins community.
She is an INCREDIBLE human. Her folks are very much involved with the spirit of Fort Collins.
I’d like to plant a memorial tree nearby where my almost-5-year-old daughter and her friends can visit (and their families) can tend to and reflect on her magical life.
My first question 1) is a place like City Park a possibility, and what would I need to bring to Council/Parks to gain approval?
2) Any recommendations on trees that are Colorado Native that would flower and be approved?
3) If you’ve experienced loss of kiddos at this age, what was helpful for you when talking to your kids? We are non-religious and prefer straightforward talk about death and dying. (Former Catholic).
Question #3 is not imperative. We have a very smart and crazy intuitive kid who knows her friend is gone. I don’t want to engage in religious debate.
Thank you, and appreciate any insight into Council workings for memorial trees.

I’m considering moving from Ft Collins Colorado to St Louis Missouri. Biggest factors being cost of living and my health. High altitude is not doing well for me. I’m interested to hear locals opinions instead of what can be googled.
How are the schools? How inclusive is the area (lgbtqia)? How are heavily tattooed people looked at? How much is religion apart of life? How is Medicaid and food assistance? What’s healthcare like? How’s the outdoor activities? What’s the biggest pest problems?
I’m interested in anything you’d like to share!

Quick and Dirty: So long as you get Pep Talk by completing the first four dream quests, AND install Ye Olde Chemicker on Plunkett Street, you can get 15/15/15 on day 6 and beat the Ocean City Boardwalk games (Dream Cat not required). The rough outline: You get +2/+2/+2 from Ocean City perks and Charlestown State Pen perks, +1/+1/+1 from any number of hat and pants combos, +1/+1/+1 from the Monster Club sash, +1/+1/+1 from a Noble Elixir from Ye Olde Chemicker, +1/+1/+1 from the devil's food cake (throw a hot link down the H***hole), +1/+1/+1 from your choice of liquor and your bonus from the electrified orb, +1/+1/+1 from your Pep Talk perk and choice of cat, +1 to Moxie from a new set of teeth, +1 to Muscle from Chiropractic, +1 to mysticality from the statue of you, +1/+1/+1 from losing and getting Angry, Contemplative, and Aloof effects.
Beating the Ocean City Boardwalk games requires a minimum of 15/15/15 Mus/Mys/Mox stats. This is missable--it is possible to lock yourself out of being able to achieve such high stats. However, there are multiple ways to get your M-stats this high, meaning even if you miss one route to 15/15/15, another is likely still open. I wanted to make a quick guide about not only how to purely maximize stats, but the different options available to get yourself to 15/15/15.

Always Possible Stat Boosts

On any save file, 13/13/13 should be achievable. Here's how:

• +1/+1/+1 from Basic Humanity
• +4/+4/+4 from Skill Upgrades
• +1 Muscle from "St. Polycarp's Forehead" perk (St. Polycarp's Cathedral quest)
• +1 Mysticality from "Skeptical" perk (pay for a tarot reading three times at Ocean City Boardwalk)
• +1 Moxie from "Expert Sitter" perk (Marvin's quest)

Those, which I assume most folks who made it through chapter 1 know about, bring you to 6/6/6. Potions, alcohol, and food will also easily net you +1, +1, +2 to your choice of stats (you can get higher boosts from food and potions, but they are unique and/or missable), bringing you to around 7/8/7. Then:

• +1/+1/+1 from wearing the completed Monster Club sash accessory (complete all Monster Shack quests). To my knowledge, it is impossible to lock yourself out of this quest.
• +1 Moxie from the "Perfect Teeth" perk (the dentist at the Maize Maze in Gray County)
• +1/+1/+1 from giving prisoners Chiropractor gift certificates (Charlestown State Pen in Government Valley)
• +1 Muscle from the "Well Adjusted" effect using the same gift certificate for yourself

This brings us to 10/10/10. To get to 13/13/13:

• A hat and pants combo can get you +1/+1/+1 any playthrough. The intimidating Stetson from Haim Quarry in The Big Moist with S.I.T. kitchen britches from the S.I.T. gift shop) is the earliest available combo, but you can also combine any puckwudgie hat from Gray County with the corresponding S.I.T. pants from the S.I.T. gift shop). There's also the glorious tiara from the Wreck of the Longerfellow, which is difficult to reach.
• The electrical orb on your bookshelf from Radio Shack in The Big Moist grants +1 to your class' main stat when you touch it.
• The statue of you from Puckwudgie Village and one of the three M-stat cats (not counting the dream cat) can grant you +1 to an additional 2 M-stats
• Finally: Losing battles (NOT surrendering!) will grant you Angry), Contemplative, and Aloof effects for an additional +1/+1/+1.

So, this will get you to +13/+13/+13 fairly hassle free. But that still leaves us 6 points shy of victory. Thankfully, there are myriad ways to reach that final number (and beyond)

Bridging the final +6 gap

All of the following is content you can lock yourself out of, sometimes pretty easily, sometimes pretty early in the game. The good news is, there are so many options, it's likely a path to 15/15/15 still exists on your save file unless you've reached the very late game and aren't lucky.

Dreams

You can get an additional +4 from Dream-related events.

• The Dream Cat from the Prologue grants +1/+1/+1, for an additional +2 M-stats compared with the other M-stat cats. They are very missable, and you can permanently lose their boon if you pet another cat on Chapter 6, as you will not go to sleep again.
• You must complete quests in your first four dreams to get the perk Pep talk, granting +1 to 2 of your 3 M-stats. You choose the M-stats by picking which statue to silence in Yet Another Fitful Dream.

Clothing

• The giant maggot hat, which comes from helping the miners and NOT working with Frogger at Haim Quarry, gives +1/+1/+1 for an additional +1 M-stat.
• Weathered Jeans can be bought from Advanced Pants on Day 4 if you choose it as an additional shop on Plunkett street. It grants +1 Muscle and +1 Moxie, and is the only pair of pants to provide +1 to more than 1 M-stat, for an additional +1 overall. You will only install 5 of the 9 possible stores on Plunkett street during a playthrough, making it easy to miss this shop.

This makes for a maximal +2 from better clothes.

Food

There are a number of food options to grant more than +1 to your M-stats, granting a maximal additional +2 to your M-stats overall.

• Any food starting with H can be thrown in The H***hole in Gray County to make devil's food cake, for +1/+1/+1. Of particular interest are hot links, which can be crafted at arcane ovens from the infinitely abundant phlogistic resin. This is always available in any save file, but easily missed.
• The Dauphin House) in The Big Moist contains a Can of Fruit Cocktail for +1/+1/+1. This item is unique.
• Fruit Advertisements can be gotten from Junk Mail once you've gotten the letter opener on day 6. They give +1/+1/+1 when eaten.
• Fish sandwiches can be bought from Fission Chips or The Underground Restaurant) for +1 to 2 M-stats of your choice (suboptimal, but available starting day 3)
• Finally, picking Botany as a major opens up 2 interesting options for an additional (suboptimal) +1 to your M-stats: You can make a questionable salad at Professor Kalos' Holiday Home which grants +1 to Muscle and Mysticality when eaten, AND you can wander at S.I.T. with Barker to find Odd Fruit for +1 to Muscle and Moxie.

Potions

Potion options are comparatively limited, but can grant an additional +2.

• The Noble Exlixir (+1/+1/+1) will be sold at Ye Olde Chemicker if you install it on Plunkett Street, but ONLY on day 6. You will only install 5 of the 9 possible stores on Plunkett street during a playthrough, making it easy to miss this shop.
• If you take the Chemicals major at S.I.T., you can get Professor Adams as a companion. Talking to him at Ye Olde Chemicker will give you 3 of Professor Adams' special potions for +1/+1/+1. This can only be done once, but can get you +1/+1/+1 potions before day 6.
• Without Ye Olde Chemicker, you can find radium rouge at the Dauphin House in The Big Moist for +1 to Mysticality and Moxie (suboptimal). This item is unique.

Other

There are a couple unique effects that you can use which will last 1 day only

• At The Old Junkyard at Crystaldream lake, there's a tub you can soak in for +1/+1/+1 for the rest of the day. This is a one day only effect; you can only soak once and will not be able to soak any other day. Optimal to soak on day 6.
• Similarly, in Gray County, you can encounter a blob of crude oil surrounded by electrified shale spires. If you choose the option "Harness the Lightning [7 Mysticality] you get +1 Mysticality from the Fossil Fueled effect for the rest of the day. This option can only be chosen once; the event can occur many times, but once you choose to harness lightning, it will never happen again (optimal to do so on day 6).
• Finally, the exploit: You can get +3/+3/+3 if you choose spiders as an elective at S.I.T. I don't recommend it, but it's there.

Bonus Guide to Liquors

-Tequila grants +1 to Muscle and Mysticality and can be found in the Mob Submarine in The Big Moist, but only if you accept the Mob's offer on day 2. - Whiskey grants +1 to Muscle and Moxie and can be found in the Moonshiner's Cave in The Big Moist. - Absinthe grants +1 to Mysticality and Moxie and is found in Rufus' Lab) at S.I.T.
Shoutout to this previous post by u/Mr_Lisreal, which already covers most of what's in this post. My motivation behind making this was primarily that the wiki does not do a good job of displaying potion effects in a browsable way, and it wasn't clear to me if it was possible to completely box yourself out of being able to complete the boardwalk games (to my eye it appears possible, but uncommon). I also wanted a guide out there for freaks like me who enjoy petting cats, and therefore don't want to lean on the dream cat boon because it deprives you of the joy of petting all the other cats in the game.

Free shipping on orders over $60
Plus,

• Buy 2, get additional 10% off.
• Buy 3-5, get additional 20% off.
• Buy 6-10, get 25% off.
• Buy 10+, get 30% off.

Prices updated to reflect Jomashop and Fragrancenet, but they change prices often - if you like something, and there is a better price elsewhere, I'll beat it! Let me know in the post/chat/inbox - I am not firm on anything. I will definitely provide discounts for multiple purchases.
I can meet face to face (Fort Collins, CO), and I can ship USPS Priority for $8. Shipping in USA only, unless you have a forwarder that you want to use.
Prices are for Paypal F&F or Venmo. Please add 3% for Paypal G&S.
All the boxes are brand new, but due to handling, some might have issues with the cellophane cover - I'd say that 95% are in perfect shape, but some might be missing the cellophane. I'll send a photo of the actual unit in chat.
Type:EDP is perfume, EDT is toilette, Size is size in ounces, and Q is quantity I have left, Price is the price I have them listed for.
Mens
Brand - Name - Type - Size - Quantity - Price
Armani Acqua di Gio EDT 1oz 1x $45.00
*SOLD - Azzaro Chrome EDT 3.4oz 0x $40.00
*SOLD - Azzaro Wanted by night EDP 3.4oz 0x $80.00
*SOLD - Azzaro Wanted EDT 3.4oz 0x $60.00
Calvin Klein Defy EDT 3.3oz 2x $40.00
Calvin Klein Defy EDT 1.6oz 3x $30.00
Coach Platinum EDP 3.3oz 2x $40.00
Coach Platinum EDP 2oz 1x $33.00
Coach Coach for men EDT 2oz 1x $34.00
Dolce Gabanna "K" EDP 1.6oz 3x $45.00
Dolce Gabanna "K" EDT 3.3oz 4x $55.00
Dolce Gabanna "K" EDT 1.6oz 4x $37.00
Jimmy Choo Man EDT 1.7oz 2x $30.00
Jimmy Choo Man EDT 3.3oz 3x $40.00
Jimmy Choo Man Blue EDT 3.3oz 3x $40.00
John Varvatos Artisan Pure EDT 2.5oz 1x $28.00
Montblanc Legend EDP 3.3oz 5x $42.00
Montblanc Legend Spirit EDT 1.7oz 1x $28.00
Montblanc Legend Spirit EDT 3.3oz 1x $35.00
Paco Rabanne 1 Million EDP 3.4oz 1x $80
Womens
Brand - Name - Type - Size - Q - Price
Ariana Grande R.E.M. EDP 3.4oz 1x $60.00
Ariana Grande R.E.M. EDP 1.7oz 4x $40.00
Armani Terra Di Gioia EDP 1oz 1x $50.00
Armani My Way Intense EDP 1oz 7x $55.00
Armani My Way Intense EDP 1.7oz 1x $60.00
Armani My Way EDP 3oz 2x $80.00
Armani My Way EDP 1.7oz 2x $60.00
Armani My Way EDP 1oz 9x $55.00
Bvlgari Omnia Pink Sapphire EDT 2.2oz 8x $50.00
Bvlgari Omnia Coral EDT 2.2oz 4x $50.00
Bvlgari Omnia Amethyste EDT 2.2oz 2x $50.00
Caroline Herrera Good Girl Supreme EDP 1oz 1x $50.00
Coach Coach EDP 1.7oz 1x $35.00
Coach Coach EDT 1.7oz 1x $35.00
Coach Dreams EDP 0.3oz 2x $20.00 - Free with COACH 1oz and larger
Dior Joy EDP 1oz 2x $45.00
Dior Miss Dior Roses n'Roses EDT 1.7oz 2x $70.00
Dior Miss Dior Roses n'Roses EDT 1oz 2x $50.00
Dior J'adore EDT 3.4oz 1x $70.00
Dior J'adore Infinissime EDP 1.7oz 2x $80.00
Dior J'adore Infinissime (new, but no celophane) EDP 3.4oz 1x $85.00
DKNY Be Delicious EDP 1.7oz 1x $30.00
DKNY Be Delicious EDP 1oz 2x $28.00
Dolce Gabanna Dolce Garden EDP 1.6oz 1x $40.00
Dolce Gabanna Light Blue EDT 0.84oz 1x $30.00
Dolce Gabanna The One EDP 0.25oz 1x $20.00 - FREE with any DG 1.7oz or larger
Dolce Gabanna The Only One EDP 0.33oz 2x $20.00 - FREE with any DG 1.7oz and larger
Donna Karan Cashmere Mist EDT 1oz 4x $30.00
Donna Karan Cashmere Mist EDT 3.4oz 2x $70.00
Donna Karan Cashmere Mist EDP 1.7oz 4x $40.00
Escada Summer Festival EDT 3.3oz 2x $45.00
Escada Summer Festival EDT 1oz 1x $35.00
Gucci Bloom Nettari di fiori Intense EDP 1.6oz 1x $70.00
Gucci Bloom Acqua di fiori EDT 1.6oz 1x $70.00
Gucci Bloom EDP 1oz 1x $40.00
Jimmy Choo Fever EDP 1.3oz 2x $30.00
Jimmy Choo Jimmy Choo EDP 2oz 2x $38.00
Jimmy Choo Jimmy Choo EDP 1.3oz 3x $25.00
Jimmy Choo L'eau EDT 1.3oz 1x $27.00
Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy le bubbly EDP 1.7oz 1x $35.00
Juicy Couture Oui EDP 1oz 1x $30.00
Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy Rose EDP 3.4oz 1x $35
Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy Rose EDP 1.7oz 1x $25 (no cellophane)
Kate Spade Kate Spade EDP 0.33oz 1x $20.00
Lancome Idole Le Grand Perfume EDP 3.4oz 1x $90.00
Lancome Idole Aura EDP 3.4oz 1x $90.00
Lancome Idole Le Parfum EDP 0.8oz 2x $40.00
Lancome Idole Le Parfum EDP 1.7oz 3x $70.00
Lancome Idole L'Intense EDP 2.5oz 1x $75.00
Mark Jacobs Perfect EDP 1.6oz 3x $60.00
Mark Jacobs Perfect Intense EDP 1.6oz 3x $60.00
Mark Jacobs Perfect Intense EDP 3.3oz 3x $80.00
Mark Jacobs Daisy EDT 0.33oz 2x $20.00 - FREE with any Mark Jacobs 1.7oz and larger
Mark Jacobs Daisy Eau so fresh EDT 0.33oz 3x $20.00 - FREE with any Mark Jacobs 1.7oz and larger
Mark Jacobs Daisy Love Eau So Sweet EDT 0.33oz x $20.00 - FREE with any Mark Jacobs 1.7oz or larger
Michael Kors Wonderlust EDP 3.4oz 1x $50.00
Michael Kors Sparkling Blush EDP 1oz 1x $40.00
Mugler Alien Goddess EDP 1oz 8x $50.00
*SOLD - Philosophy Fresh Cream EDT 2oz 0x $30.00
Philosophy Amazing Grace Magnolia EDT 2oz 4x $30.00
Philosophy Amazing Grace Ballet Rose EDT 2oz 2x $35.00
*SOLD - Philosophy Amazing Grace EDT 4oz 1x $30.00
*SOLD - Philosophy Pure Grace EDP 2oz 1x $30.00
Viktor&Rolf Bonbon EDP 1.7oz 2x $60.00
Viktor&Rolf Bonbon EDP 1oz 2x $50.00
Viktor&Rolf Bonbon Pastel EDT 1.7oz 1x $50.00
Viktor&Rolf Bonbon Couture Intense EDP 1.7oz 2x $60.00

• https://imgur.com/tssYeIJ
• https://imgur.com/9VZwXIk
• https://imgur.com/GHM7nWV
• https://imgur.com/L9ezdjO
• https://imgur.com/nRVr1uK

My wife and I are looking to visit Fort Collins over the Fourth. Good time to come to town? Looking to make sure there are open breweries and other fun things to do. We don't need any fireworks or crazy picnics but would enjoy hanging out! Unfortunately we're booked most other weekends with weddings and family events.
Been following the sub for a while to look out for posts on food, cocktails, and best breweries. If you have any recommendations on hikes, food, or beer (main thing for us! We know Odell and New Belgium). So far I have:
Armstrong Hotel (only one or two nights)
Fiona's Deli
Choice City/Big Al's
Zwei/Otto Pint if we're south.
Verboten Brewing

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/soldier-dies-training-accident-fort-johnson/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaZLH-E6GninoFa2NJ-dih62oDv4LGyR69cVBV0BHyR7RSnXJNm4m4Yy8p0_aem_AYcIf1vWXksgAYlGrQJRFhDLqMJrTw8ZhrQbC4AGK588F-NJ8AAplXm4wVDBd7RNWa5qxVDCj6Yo_1ROzcer7NB-
Rest easy, We Remember.

1. We need more charter and Montessori schools. I do not want my child playing with poors!
   
2. Canes needs to go. Too much traffic, i can barely get my kids to practice in my maroon Honda pilot
   
3. Not enough breweries. I fell out of my chair at Odell the other day because I noticed I couldn’t go to a microbrewery every day for the next week!
   

Hello fellow sitters! Just looking for advice on a response. Just a quick background.. I have experience caring for others pets for over 10 years and a background working at a pet hotel for 2 years, but I have recently converted to doing this full time doing overnight boarding and doggie daycare in my home. I am still newer to Rover (about 3 months). I’m still in the transitional phase slowly increasing my prices until I’m well established. Due to this I’m always happy to get the extended care rate added on an overnight stay since it balances the percentage that Rover takes.
Well a weekly daycare client of mine has requested her first overnight booking; 1 night plus 9 additional hours which triggered the full extended care rate to be added. She reached out (via personal #) getting clarification of the price since it’s double the overnight rate. She knew it would be extra, but expected to see the price of an overnight stay plus a daycare stay (even though I explained it to her before she booked), so it’s about a $25 difference on her end. I know realistically I can modify the price to reflect what she expected, but again, then I’d be back to getting paid less than I’m worth.
Mind you, I do love the pup but she recently turned 1 so am no longer getting the puppy rate, but she still very much acts like a puppy, so I also feel like I’m finally getting a little more compensation for the extra work. Owner suggested to maybe do 2 separate bookings - 1 for the overnight stay, and 1 for the daycare stay so she doesn’t get charged for 2 nights and save the $20. Should I just give in and agree and modify the booking? Or what could I say so she understands my side. I also know she has another option for care (her elderly father) but pup always has a great time here so she prefers her to stay here. I don’t want to come off as greedy and ruin the relationship we’ve already established so I need to tread lightly.
Just as an fyi, I don’t think going off Rover is an option for her since it was previously discussed that I have my own side business and carry insurance and care for pups outside of Rover and she could potentially save booking directly w/me. But she’s kept her bookings through Rover and I never push or suggest it outside casually mentioning it when asked.
Any advice? Has any other owners tried or suggested this loophole to you before? TIA!

I need cat help. I have two cats and they are great but they are destroying my sanity. Also, we move in less than a month and I have wonder if this is the chance to improve some tricky behaviors that have emerged.
They are always under my feet. I trip over them in the baby carrier and feel terrible but I don’t see them with the carrier on. I walk on eggshells. This might not be fixable, but it’s worth mentioning.
They constantly try to escape. Leaving and coming home is SO HARD just from dealing with the cat escapes. I have to leave at minimum 4 times a day for school drop off and pick up. They escape a LOT. I made them a catio. They liked it initially but now have broke out of it a million times …they like it but not as much as escaping. Part of me wonders if I could let them outside with an air tag and a better collar (I heard some are possibly better than the three I have tried so far), but we will be on a very busy fast street and we have a train on the other side. I think coyotes will be less inclined to be near our house but the cats are not conditioned for traffic and could run in front of a car. But I do wonder…
I read a self help book on cats (Total Cat Mojo) and followed the recommendations. I got cat toys and play with them every day. They still zoom and meow at night. I made vertical spaces and cat scratch spots. They still prefer the kitchen counters and scratching the couch and carpet. (I might try a motion air spray for the counters and a scent spray for the couches. I also have some fun hide-y holes and perch/tower ideas in store for the new place). I have had to replace so much furniture that they have destroyed. I got a cat-proof couch and they are really testing the limits of it.
They are fed well and loved immensely by the family, but if they are outdoor cats they will likely die (it is considered inhumane to have them as outdoor cats in this area on account of the coyotes , but we have a stray cat problem so it is also very encouraged to adopt, which is what we did). They are a bonded pair that was fostered indoors since birth from a feral mom, but they hate being indoor cats now. We got leashes thinking we could train them and walk them but they hate the leashes. They break out of breakaway collars. They are so sad inside. I just feel like there is no fixing it unless I let them outside but we are on a busy street and if a coyote doesn’t get them, a car definitely will.
They drive me crazy but I love these little buddies and want them to thrive. How do I set this new living situation up for success? We have a smaller home and no longer have the views/vaulted ceilings/second floor…but we have a big yard and could make a bigger catio and could update the new spot to be more optimal possibly. I love the cats and I want them to love their lives with us. I do believe they are mostly happy. They get treats and pets and they are played with and snuggled by all of us.
One more note (kudos to you if you read all this. I feel like I’ve written a book at this point): in the last year we were gone for about seven weeks at which point we had two different cat sitters. Anytime we go on trip we get the same cat sitters who know them at this point. We also have visitors a lot. Like all the time. Also I was pregnant and had a new baby in the last year. So the cats have dealt with a ton of change over the last year and they’re only two years old. I can honestly say that we will be slowing down the rate of change a lot in the new house (but will still have the occasional trips and house guests).
Thank you for reading this. Any advice is welcome and appreciate it for our sweet little buddies.

I have more than 20 years of veterinary industry experience. My resume is long winded. I’ve been an Animal Care Technician at the ASPCA in NYC, SPCA in Oakland, Lab Animal Tech at MSKCC, Vet Assistant and Tech at several animal hospitals and clinics in NYC, doggy daycare attendant, pet shop manager and I’ve successfully operated a pet sitting and dog sitting business since 2010 across various states. I’m a 5 star-rated Rover sitter since 2014. But my body is tired.
I’m 37, recently engaged to a supportive partner but I realize I want a decent paying career (60k+). I want to work at home and help others with their pet related issues. I’ve been accepted to SUNY Delhi for their Vet Tech degree program in the Fall but with my experience are there roles out there for me now?

When I was in my early 20’s, I worked at a dog boarding facility.
It wasn’t a bad gig by any means. A lot of menial work, sure, but it paid the bills, and most of the time I was stationed at the front desk, which meant I avoided a lot of direct interaction with most of the dogs. Instead, I dealt with the owners (or “pet parents,” as we called them), which, while more my forte, was oftentimes arguably worse. At least with a dog, you can justify it being stupid.
Looking back on that night now, I would have much rather dealt with a person than the dog that I had encountered.
One of my duties when working the front desk in the evenings was cleaning the lobby and locking the front doors for the night. The opening shift would then come in the morning, unlock the doors, and the cycle would repeat. This is what I had been doing when I realized I had locked myself out of the building.
For a little additional context, the building itself had three front doors. Two led into a sort of breezeway before you got to the actual front door, which led into the actual building. The first two doors had to be locked and unlocked manually, but the main door locked and unlocked itself automatically on a timer. Normally, this was no issue. Every employee had a fob that, when pressed on a sensor near the door, would unlock it briefly to allow entry. But my fob was attached to my keys, which were tucked away in my locker within the building.
Usually, again, this would have been a minor inconvenience at worst. I could simply go around to the back door, bang on it for a minute or two, and wait for one of my coworkers to open the door. But, I had to stay behind that evening and finish cleaning the lobby, having been delayed by a few last-minute pickups and a particularly chatty client on the phone. We had been working with a skeleton crew, as new hires had been few and far between, and the girl I had been working with was tired and eager to go home. I let her go and told her I would lock up on my own.
I wish I had told her to stay.
Standing there in the breezeway, with nothing but the singular key to the two front doors, I was kicking myself. I’d fucked myself over this time, and now I was going to have to make the humiliating call for someone to come to the building and let me in. I could feel the weight of my phone in my pocket, and I slipped my hand into it, only to freeze in place.
It was not my phone, but my wallet.
Shit. It only then occurred to me that my phone was also still within the building. During the slower parts of the day, I had it out and had been texting my boyfriend at the time. Now it sat at the front desk, so close but so far at the same time. Not only had I locked myself out of the building, I had locked myself out of the building by myself, with no way to get help. In my overdramatic mind, suicide was starting to sound like a very good option.
There was a gas station about a mile or so away that I knew would be open and that, I guessed, was where I was going to have to go. There, I could presumably use a phone and get a hold of my roommate to come pick me up. In the morning, I could drop off the key and get my stuff.
I unlocked one of the two doors and stepped out, locking it once again behind me. I slipped the key into my pocket and started walking. It was already dark out and I was cold and eager to get this over with.
That’s when I heard the clicking of nails against the pavement, just barely audible.
My first instinct was that somehow, a dog had escaped. Sure, stray dogs weren’t uncommon, especially in the city that I lived in, but given the proximity to the building, I had feared that somehow, some way, a dog had managed to slip out under our noses and get out of the building. This would have taken either some incredible negligence on our end or some incredible intelligence on the dog’s, but it technically was possible.
I turned around and scanned the area, trying to locate the source of the sound. The parking lot was illuminated by a singular streetlight and the outside lights from the nearby buildings, and the dark of night was creeping in, thick and inky black. The noise came from further back, near the employee parking, which only fueled my suspicion that a dog had escaped. I really didn’t want to go back there in the dark, but I also wasn’t too keen on getting in trouble for letting a dog get out. I slowly crept over, keeping my ears and eyes open, trying to find the dog.
Finally, it stepped out from the shadows, standing near my car. It was a large, filthy Great Pyrenees, and we briefly had a staring match as I tried to figure out who it was. We had a few Pyrenees dogs come in, but it was mostly for daycare, and we didn’t have any in the building that night. I didn’t recognize this specific dog, either, but I hoped that it had a collar with a name and number on it, so that I could at least call the owner and let them know where I had found their animal whenever I got a chance. I knelt and extended my hand, making a kissy noise in the hopes of drawing it over.
“Hi, baby,” I said, using my “dog voice,” making it as soft and non-threatening as I could. “C’mere.” The dog took a few steps forward, eyes still focused on me.
That’s when I noticed the smell. Rotting meat and blood, strong enough that I could smell it from where I stood. The dog was reeking of decay. In my mind, I rationalized it. We were next to a highway, after all. No telling what kinds of roadkill it could have been getting into. I just did my best to push through it in favor of making sure the dog was alright.
I continued my beckoning for a few minutes, doing as much baby talk as I possibly could. I didn’t want to approach the dog myself, just in case it was nervous, but if I could just get a look at that collar…
After about five minutes of this, I stood up, watching it for another moment. It wasn’t a dog I recognized and I couldn’t get it to come over to me on its own terms, so my tired and still-panicked brain decided that it wasn’t my problem. I’d just let my manager know in the morning that I had seen a dog sniffing around and that I was fairly certain it wasn’t one that we’d ever had to stay with us. Then, maybe we could find it again, clean it up, and see if it belonged to anybody. The animal control in my city isn’t particularly well-regarded, so I figured it would be better to wait and see than to get them involved.
I turned around and started to walk away, back down to the road, when I heard the clicking of nails against the pavement once again. I turned around to see the dog moving closer once again. Its movements were jerky and uncoordinated, and that combined with its condition made me think it was injured, so I stopped.
The dog never stopped moving towards me, but when it noticed that I had stopped to look at it, it stopped as well. Then, staring straight at me again, it broke out into a sprint. Its legs flailed and its head lolled as it headed straight towards me, and my stomach dropped.
Have you ever been prey? Have you ever looked something in the eyes and just known, in some deep, primal portion of your brain, that it was going to kill you? It’s a funny feeling— all the cold, heavy dread that seeps into you, like liquid into cloth.
At that moment, my mind screamed at me to run. Panicked, I broke out into a sprint, heading straight for the door to the building. I had precious seconds before it would reach me, and I fumbled with the key as I hurriedly unlocked the door and swung it open, grabbing it and slamming it closed just before the dog made it. Breathing hard, I locked the door and stepped back, my eyes still on the dog.
All that separated us now was some metal and about half an inch of glass.
I could see the dog much clearer then. Its fur was filthy with dust and dirt, and its chest was caked with something dark that I could only hope wasn’t blood. Its eyes were bloodshot and glazed over, and from its mouth dripped saliva, thick and red.
The smell was even stronger at this point, nauseatingly strong.
Whatever was going on with this dog, it was bad. I wasn’t sure of what else to do. Even if I went through the opposite door, there was no way I’d be able to outrun it. I couldn’t make a break for my car because I didn’t have my keys, which were locked in the building alongside my fob and my phone.
No way out, no way to call for help. All I could do was sit and wait in the breezeway. I figured that eventually it would give up on me. It would have to, after all. And I figured once it moved on and was gone, I could haul ass to the highway and hitchhike over to the gas station. Shakily, I sat down, my gaze never leaving the dog. It stood there, watching me, and then it whined.
I say “whined,” but it was more like a long, drawn-out wheeze, like something trying to imitate the whine of a dog instead of doing it. It punctuated the noise with a sickening gurgle, and then it held its head down to hack up a mixture of blood, saliva, and phlegm, spitting it out onto the window before it. It oozed down the glass, leaving a slimy trail behind it, and I had to look away before the sight made me vomit.
I turned my head away from it entirely, trying to steady my breathing. Despite my best efforts, the fear and nausea were about to get the best of me anyway, and I curled in on myself, doing my best to keep everything down. I inched away from the door in favor of the one opposite, trying to put as much distance between myself and the dog as I could. I have no idea how long I stayed like that, curled up into a ball. But when I looked up, the dog was still there, watching me.
I was half-convinced that I was dreaming, or that the situation wasn’t real somehow. How would I even begin to try to convince somebody of what was happening right now? What would I tell my boyfriend? “Sorry, babe, I couldn’t get to the phone last night. Zombie dog and whatnot.” What started as simply a shitty end to the night had managed to turn into the car scene of Cujo, of all things. But the churning in my stomach and the cold biting into my skin was enough to reassure me that this was all very much real. There would be no waking up, no suddenly being pulled back into reality.
I dipped my head back down, trying to convince myself that I would be okay, when I heard its nails scrape against the glass. I jerked my head back up and looked over, inhaling sharply as the dog stood on its hind legs and rested its front ones against the glass. It started to scratch at the glass, trying to claw its way in, and I flinched at the sudden movement, scooting further back. I was all but pressed against the opposite door by this point, unable to keep my eyes off of the dog.
It scratched at the door for a minute longer, stopped, then started to scratch again. Scratch, stop, scratch, stop. This pattern repeated for at least fifteen minutes, and I had almost gotten used to it. The glass was thick enough that I was fairly certain it would withstand the dog’s scratching, and if it didn’t, I figured I wouldn’t have to worry about anything anymore after that.
When the noise had become a somewhat tolerable pattern, I curled back up into a ball, hoping to ride out this nightmare of a situation. The noise stopped altogether and I raised my head back up to see what had happened. The dog had turned around and was walking away.
The relief was like a two-ton weight being lifted off of my chest, and I stood up to watch the dog leave. My relief was short-lived, though, when it stopped and turned around. We were once again locked into a staring match.
A pretty common rule with animals is to never look them in the eye. I had been actively avoiding doing just that this entire time, but finally, my gaze slipped down and locked into the dog’s.
There was nothing there. It was empty, like someone had removed the dog’s original eyes and replaced them with glass.
The dog broke out into a sprint again, making me flinch and jump back. As it ran, it staggered and swerved as if it were drunk, but the distance between us was short. Within seconds, it had thrown itself against the glass of the window, slamming its head against it.
I screamed. I’m not ashamed to admit it. I screamed and huddled back in the corner and watched with terror as the dog backed up, ran, and threw itself at the door, over and over again. The door was, fortunately, holding steady. Despite the dog’s repeated attempts, it was standing strong, the only thing that entire night that had done me any good.
The dog was becoming agitated. It gargled and whined as it scratched at the door once again, seeming to give up on throwing itself against the door. I noticed it had injured itself in the process, the skin just above its eye having broken open and its mouth a bloody mess. Blood oozed out of the injuries and dripped onto the ground. Then, it backed up and tried one more time.
The world went silent for the briefest moment, and then there was a sickening crunch.
With its swerving, it must have made a head-on collision with the hinge, or maybe the brick beside the door, because the moment it landed, the dog’s skull busted open from the impact, splattering gore across the window. I screamed again, and this time, the urge to vomit was too strong. I threw up then and there in the corner as the sights and smells became too much for me. I don’t know how long I spent there, on all fours, coughing and gagging as I threw up the contents of my stomach, and when I had nothing left to expel, I dry-heaved.
I collapsed on the ground after that, gasping for air between sobs. I didn’t know if the dog was still alive and at that moment I didn’t really care. I didn’t even realize I had passed out until I heard voices echoing.
When I woke up, I was aware of three things: I was on the floor of the breezeway, there was a horrible taste in my mouth, and that people were talking.
As soon as I woke up, I remembered what had happened. Locking myself out. The dog. My whole body felt like dead weight. Even when my coworkers opened the door and came over to see what was going on, I couldn’t bring myself to stand. I was still afraid if I got up, it’d still be there with its busted skull and rotten stench, pawing and scraping and gurgling.
The smell must have hit my coworkers as well because the moment they stepped in, I could hear the “oh my god”s and “what happened”s. Then, I assume, one of them noticed the gore on the window. That’s when the voices became more frantic, and the more I became aware, the more I could pick out whose voice belonged to whom.
The voice of my coworker Holly was the closest to me. I could feel her hand reach down and shake me. She was calling my name, trying to rouse me, and I did my best to focus solely on her throughout the commotion.
“What is that?!” I recognized the voice of Mertle, who worked in the back and must have spotted the dog.
“Is that a dog? Oh my god, is it dead?” There was Carlos, who had worked the front desk the previous morning and had no doubt come in to do the same today.
Holly was shaking me harder now, and I moved in response just to let her know I was alive. “Eddie, are you okay?” I could hear her asking. I didn’t want to get up, or even respond, but I had no other choice.
I got up, slowly but surely, dragging myself into a sitting position as I opened my bleary eyes. Sure enough, there was Holly, looking back and forth from the window door to me. There was Mertle, hand over her mouth, and Carlos, staring dumbfounded out the window at the dog outside. Everyone was talking all at once, and to me, it was just a massive block of noise. The dog was dead, though. The dog was dead and that, at that moment, was all that mattered to me.
“What the fuck happened?” Carlos suddenly turned around, looking down at me.
The only thing I managed to croak out was “Sorry.”
The rest of that day was a haze to me. I remember going through the motions, but not really being “there”, if that makes any sense. I can remember little details- tossing my shirt in the washing machine in the back because it was covered in vomit, sitting with my manager as he argued with the local animal control to come to collect the dog's body, watching the camera footage of me sprinting across the parking lot with the dog in tow over and over again, like a broken record.
I never did find out what was wrong with that dog. My manager suspected some kind of rabies, but I don’t know.
I quit that job not too long after. The paranoia got too much for me. Any time I would go into the back of the building, where the dogs were, I would get that feeling again. That cold, sinking dread in my stomach that would make me want to hurl. I had to have someone sit up at the front desk with me as I locked the door, as I’d be too scared to go out into the breezeway by myself when it got dark.
It came to a head when a dog got off of its lead and tried to make a bolt for the door, as it usually would. Unfortunately, I had just so happened to be between the dog and the door, and the sight of it running at me sent me into such a panic I collapsed to the ground and shook. After that, I was gone. I don’t think anybody blamed me.
I’ve put it all away in my mind, both the place and the incident. I try not to think about it too much.
I’m always mindful of my keys now, though, just in case.
Prey never stops being prey.

I live in one and I feel like they don’t really enforce their rules that much if not at all. For instance, vehicles using the handicap lanes as a dedicated parking spot (no handicap stickeplacard), neighbors who use charcoal grills on patio, dogs off leash, more than two pets per unit, etc.
Admittedly I fall into the last category as we have one extra pet than we should (wasn’t the case up until recently). I have to find a pet sitter any time we want maintenance work done, but it’s a hassle and sometimes not doable. I’m wondering if the maintenance workers even care to report these kinds of things and if I’m being overly careful, but idk. I’m thinking better safe than sorry, but was curious if anyone else had experience with this particular management?
(I know every CTL property has different management, but still want opinions)

I just saw a tiktok of a dog trainer using pet correctors for off leash dogs that come running towards them, clearly untrained and no recall. It was basically just a spray of condensed air that makes a loud noise to scare the dog away. I read in the comments you could use compressed air to clean keyboards but another person said it’s not loud enough to actually scare the dog. Does anyone have any suggestions for pet corrector that’s not expensive? My biggest fear while out on walks is an untrained dog running towards us 😓 i would like to be as prepared as possible, i live in a big city with a lot of dogs, with negligent pet owners that have their dogs off leash! I also just moved to my area so all the clients that I have I’m exploring their neighborhoods and stuff for the first time so I’m not completely familiar with all the areas. Any suggestions would be great!! I think it’s a great purchase for any sitters/walkers to buy honestly