Did I already complain about the increase in commuter fares? That soo sucks that all that shit went up. For example, I used to pay about seven and a quarter for a round-trip train ride to discover that that bad boy had jumped up to 10 bucks. Yo - that's a lot; a huge difference. Those fuckers. It sucks so much more for me considering I'm unemployed and owe over 80 grand in loans. Damn the man!

Enough about that BS... Some know about the disappearance of my doggie. He's been missing since the beginning of May and I have no idea as to his fate. I sometimes wonder what happened to him. Did he die? Did he get hit by a car? Did someone steal him? Wish I had closure, but I think I've already accepted that I probably won't find the answer seeing as how two months have already gone by.

I have been doing a little research into certain breeds of dogs because I would like to have another dog. I was interested in a Presa Canario, which is native of the Canary Islands. But after doing some reading, I discovered that that's probably not the best choice for me at this stage in my life. I just don't think I would be able to devote all the time that this dog requires. So, I've been looking into other dogs which are, as the Presa Canario, in the Mastiff family. I've been considering Pit Bulls, American Bulldogs, American Staffordshires, and the Dogo Argentino (Argentinian Mastiff). I really want a Dogo Argentinian. I was upset when I missed an opportunity to grab a free one I saw in the classifieds. I had called too late.

My father and I visited the Animal Control facility in our county on Friday afternoon. The trip made me happy and sad. Tears even came to my eyes to see all those homeless doggies. I just wanted to adopt them all. And I also got sad to see the caged dogs in a separate room with tags on their cages that said "Mandatory Impound" and most said they were "bite cases." I didn't know if that "mandatory impound" meant that they had to be euthanized or just that they had to be evaluated. But it made me sad. There were a couple Pits in there and German Shepherds. And even a medium-sized hound dog. Pit Bulls have such a bad rep, people thinking they (along with Presa Canarios) are dangerous animals. But the truth is, the dogs that many think are a threat only account for less than one percent of all bite cases in this country. I read that off some website.

Anyways... the other dogs at the pound... Many were purebreds. Some had been given up, others were strays. One that really made me upset was this Cocker Spaniel they had nicknamed "Granny." She was about 14 years-old and very fat. But it was an abnormal bloatedness to this pooch. She was kind of like a pillow or something and she looked so helpless. Blind or almost blind, and I wonder if she was hard of hearing. Poor thing. I hope she dies happy.

There were lots of Rotts and Labs and I liked a few. There were a couple a Pit mixes that were cute. And I'm not a fan of the smaller breeds of dogs, like toy dogs and terriers and what not. And there were two small breeds in a cage and I was feeling sorry cuz someone like me wouldn't want them, but good - on the cards on their cage it said that they were already adopted. :-P

There were two American Bulldogs there. One was a young female who had already been adopted. But the male was still available. Although he was maybe about only a month older than the female (10 months), he weighed about 15 pounds more - like 80 pounds. He had a huge head and he was just really sedate. He didn't do much moving and he was even falling asleep as he sat there staring at us. My dad later asked me what I thought of it. I think there's a possiblity that we may try to adopt it. All ya'll who want a dog or cat... or even rodents - go to the pound! Don't support those pet shops in the mall or whatever. So many nice animals already without homes, we don't need to support those businesses that just turn animals into breeding machines just for mere profit and then kill what they don't think is desirable. Ever heard of puppy mills?

Yesterday my dad and I headed to DC. I didn't even know where we were going. My dad is like that. Like before we went to the pound he just asked me if I wanted to go for a ride. But I somehow suspected that that's where we were going anyways. And yesterday he asked if I wanted to ride to DC. I later find out that we were going to visit a sick relative. As we were driving in the city, I noted that there were a lot of Latinos, for which I was not really aware of their presence in the District. Later, a relative at the house we ended up at commented to my dad on how there some white people and Hispanics in the 'hood. Then before we left a cousin wanted to go around the block in my dad's new ride and my dad had something about how there really were a lot of white people. I asked him about it and he said cuz before, there didn't used to be ANY there. Times sure have changed cuz there sure are a lot of white people there now. I'd be really interested to see if any historians/sociologists have written about this phenomenon in the particular section of the city. When the one cousin was talking about the Latinos that lived some houses down, I laughed when she said there were like 10 of 'em. I found it funny cuz I understood it as being there were ten in one household. You know the jokes. LoL.

So about my dad's car... He hasn't had it that long. But it's all high-tech. When he puts it in reverse, the side-view mirror automatically adjusts itself so the driver can see towards the level of his tires. My dad was parallel parking and the damn thing even beeps once you get a certain distance to the curb. Must be nice... Wish I had a car. :-P

Anyways... so we had gone to visit a relative of my dad's. A distant cousin. Turns out that Cousin Hattie has a brain tumor and she's too old to operate on so she'll probably die soon. It was her 83rd birthday (wonder how long I'll live) and we had cake and ice cream to celebrate. Cousin Hattie was in a bed with a nurse feeding her when my dad and I arrived. And there these other distant cousins there, some that hadn't seen me since I was "yay high" and I didn't really know who they all were. :-P But yeah... we were there a couple hours. The ladies were talking about the treatment of Cousin Hattie before her daughter (who my dad said Hattie adopted when she was 8-months) arrived. How some people were in and out the house and this and that... All these people wanted to visit with her and such-and-such. And how so-and-so was taking advantage of Hattie's poor condition.

My dad told me on the ride back home that Hattie has a lot of money so everybody (non-family) from her church or wherever wants a piece of it. Shame.