weekend working

you know, the world is divided into two kinds of people: those who love cats and those who hate cats. sad to say, i'm beginning to find myself in the second category.

so, it's the halifax conference this weekend. guess what we're doing? cleaning apartments. okay, if we were just on duty, one of us could go, or we could take turns going ... but someone at head office decided that monday would be a good day for an investor's tour and mary ann picked the two dirtiest apartments to show them. so janelle and i are spending the whole weekend cleaning. oh yeah, and don't forget to water mary ann's flowers...

both apartments belonged to tenants who were evicted. both apartments belonged to people who couldn't care for their cats properly. both apartments belonged to very dirty people.

in one of the apartments, the cat pee smell was so strong that we treated it by pouring bleach all over the floor. after we mopped it up, we could still smell cat pee. apparently, they didn't bother buying a cat litter box, they just poured sand all over the floor in the closet and let the cat go nuts. i'm surprised they didn't get sick and die; while they were living there, the cat pee could be smelled in the common hallway and in other people's apartments.

we figured out that we could cut corners in our cleaning. in the kitchen, we sprayed everything (everything!) in oven cleaner and then wiped it clean. it got all the grease and grime off. in the washroom, we ran out of bleach cream, so we covered everything in toilet bowl cleaner and wiped it clean and then sprayed it with all purpose cleaner and wiped it again. in the bad cat smell apartment, we found chunks of poo all around the toilet and the outside of the bathtub, these chunks were covered in cat hair. it was gross. we took out whole garbage bags that seemed full of little other than cat hair.

so, if you live in an apartment and have a cat ... please have some consideration for your superintendents and neighbors!

another cat story! i was sitting in the office doing some paperwork this morning when a tenant from the second floor came in and told me there was a cat wandering the corridors on the second floor. so i took the elevator up and in the elevator i saw a sign that read: "missing black and white cat." nothing else, no phone number, no address. that's awfully helpful! (apparently, the other two elevators had a phone number on their signs... but i didn't see them.)

i found the cat curled up and looking scared in an apartment entryway. i picked it up and knocked on the door but there was no answer. so i started toward the elevator and picked up my cellphone to call joy (our immediate supervisor) because she has two cats. as her phone was ringing, another tenant came off the elevator and pointed out the sign inside that elevator: "missing black and white cat" this sign had a phone number, but at that moment joy answered her phone and i said, "sorry joy, i just found a cat and i was going to call you to see if you could babysit it until we find the owners, but i found someone's phone number here." she sounded a little excited, "is it black and white?! it's mine, it's mine!" so i smashed the cat in the head with a shovel and it died.



just kidding. i'm pretty sure the cat gets to live happily ever after. dumb cat. i got claw marks all over my arms and chest because the beast doesn't like elevators.