I have never had a pet unless you count my blue Beta name Penis that didn’t make it too long. No cats, no dogs, nor even any rodents. My roommates have one black fat cat reaches under my door every night around 1AM and two white kittens that have grown on me, though they’re lucky they survived when they were in heat. The past two nights, a friend of my roommates has left his pit bull puppy here, without asking prior to his disappearance, without telling any of us what he needed, where he was sleeping and so on. Yesterday, “peanut”, as Mar has dubbed him, was yapping all afternoon at the felines, while I increased the volume on my headsets. Yap, yap, yap, yapyapyapallfuckingafternoon.

Apparently, the dog is here tonight, no owner, but yes, the puppy remains. WTF?! Did it ever occur to anyone to check with us first?! Anyhow, the puppy is quiet now, but for an hour or so around midnight he was barking away (seems a roommate closed him in the laundry room (I am not taking responsibility for this pup, no way, no how, I haven’t a clue what to do). Hungry, I went downstairs, grabbed some water and a snack and made my way upstairs. Bark, bark, bark! Fucking dog. Upstairs, still barking, I slammed the bedroom door in frustration, screaming “fuck, fuck” over and over again, sat down on my bed and cried while hitting my head and clenching my teeth.

I don’t know how long I sat there but I felt better…and the damn dog is quiet. For now.

I love dogs and eventually want one of my own, but there is no way to describe how painful that high pitched barking was. It was worse than hearing crinkling paper over the phone, or being in a room with a blaring TV, radio and loud drunk person. I felt as if someone had set off a timer in my head and with each second of the clock (bark), the tick (bark) increased in volume and intensity and it felt like my head was going to short circuit and explode.

And now, I attempt to settle down, my mind and body still agitated from hours before.