February 20, 2012 - When Things Go Wrong

When things begin to go wrong, it seems as though everything goes wrong. I even titled this post "January 20".

What to do, what to do? I've shared photos of one of my granddogs with you before. Little Kobi is so precious to us, and even more precious to the humans he owns. He's eight years old, and the love of their lives. Well, last week Scott drove to the bank, and when he got out of the car Kobi jumped out unnoticed. It wasn't until Scott got home, about 15 minutes later, that he realized the dog was gone. He went back to the bank to look for him. I guess he approached a woman across the street who said she saw the dog, and that someone in a blue van drove up, opened the door, and the dog jumped in. She was sure it was his dog, she described him and even identified his leopard print collar. Really. She saw the collar across four lanes of traffic. And actually made note of it. Scott went back later to ask her more questions, and he said it took her a very long time to come to the door and he heard several dogs barking inside. He was quite suspicious of her story.

Of course we've been driving around the area every day, and have printed out and distributed a bunch of fliers. This morning a woman called to say she remembered seeing the dog that day. She took special notice, because he was so cute and was wandering around the parking lot (she was in the bank drive through). She said a Hispanic male walked over and picked him up and walked toward the front of the bank (the direction of the house where the woman who saw the "blue van" lives). She also said there was no blue van at the bank at all, just a black car.

Shortly after the first phone call, daughter Amy (her phone # is on the fliers) got another phone call. This time it was from a Hispanic male, who said "I have your dog, and I want $500." She asked where she could meet him to pick up the dog, and he hung up. No phone number, the number was blocked. Of course, there is no way to know if this person actually has the dog, or if he'd just arrange to meet someone and then rob them. Although a reward was offered on the fliers, no amount was given. Scott did, however, post on Facebook that they'd pay $500 to get the dog back. Ha! Like he has $500....he's disabled and unemployed! (Mom? Dad? Please?)

The police were already contacted about the dog the day he went missing. Of course there's nothing they can do, other than have a record of the report, as nothing criminal had happened. They were also called after the last phone call, as this could turn into either a dangerous situation or downright extortion.

In the meantime, we're all worried sick about Kobi. Now we're quite sure it wasn't some nice family that picked him up so he wouldn't get hit by a car, or probably not even someone who just wanted him because he's cute. It's more likely someone who will try to get money for him, any way they can.

On a less serious note, the other thing that went wrong was the new living room furniture I bought last summer. The sofa and love seat (not a cheap set) had "down stuffed cushions". Well, the "down" turned out to be feathers, and they work through the fabric and poke you in the butt when you sit down. Not to mention feathers all over the living room. I finally pulled the covers off and encased the inner cushion and feathers in large plastic garbage bags. You can imagine how uncomfortable those were to sit on, besides the fact the covers wouldn't stay on straight due to the slick plastic underneath. And every time someone sat on them, the air would rush out of the bags and make embarrassing sounds. I finally decided I had to do something, so I bought a roll of some 1-inch thick stuff called Nu-Foam, which is a woven fabric that is used in cushions and such, and supposed to be better than foam. To fit inside the covers, it had to be sharp around the edges, yet puffier through the seat area where the feather filling was. That meant cut it to fit, then hand stitch it to the inner lining. A time consuming, back killing job.

I'm only on my second cushion, and there are a total of five on the sofa and love seat. It cost $50 for one roll, and there's not going to be enough to finish. I'll try doing just one side, and put a less expensive quilt batting on the other side and just make sure the quilt batting side is always on the bottom. Hardly anyone sits on the love seat, so maybe I can get by just using the quilt batting on that. I'm so unhappy with that set, I wish I could return it to the store. The store that went out of business while we were down in Arizona last fall.