I admit: I did know what I was getting into when I adopted a dog. But I didn’t realize quite how bad it would be. No, not the thing where she chews up any lip glosses, Chapsticks, and toothbrushes she can get her teeth on. Not the thing where she begs to go out and then stares at an imaginary squirrel for five minutes and refuses to go to the bathroom. Not the thing where she ignores her bowl full of kibble and bites my sleeves to tell me she’s hungry.
No, I’ve had dogs since I was eight years old. I anticipated all of that, or something like it.
What I didn’t realize was quite how hard it would be to find an affordable one-bedroom apartment. Here is a visual aid.
This is the Padmapper.com map of the city of Albany, showing apartments in my price parameters. (Red signifies listings that I hadn’t clicked on yet.) I think this map included room shares, which I wasn’t really considering unless they’re in perfect locations. (i.e. the nice parts of Pine Hills)
This is what happens if you tick the “dogs” box.
Troy is actually worse. More of the listings disappear. Albany apparently has a few more student rentals where the absentee landlords don’t give a crap.
Of course, my current place didn’t explicitly say dogs were allowed, so I’m combing through the other places and e-mailing or calling to see what their deal is. Most of them just come out and say “no dogs,” though.
A lot of these I’ve eliminated because they’re scam listings, in bad/noisy neighborhoods, or lack parking. (not off-street parking: ANY parking. In the middle of the day.) One seemed ideal except for the ’70s-vintage frayed royal blue carpet and bare wires dangling from the ceiling where a light fixture should have been. Things I could work around, but that signify deeper neglect.
I have an alternate option, but was looking forward to living totally on my own for the first time. And I wanted to illustrate the problem for people who don’t understand the extent of it.
