The Divorce...

Not mine. My sister's. Mary commented in my last post asking who's getting the dogs. Those two horse-sized beasts that, for the most part, are very sweet dogs. But since I'm not a big fan of four-legged creatures, they're certainly not near and dear to my heart. Sorry animal lovers. And I think that my sister's love obsession with them is freakin' bizarre. She dresses them up on Halloween and Christmas, she has birthday parties for them, etc. She says they're her "kids," but I find the whole thing rather disturbing and unhealthy.

Anyway, back to the divorce. She's leaving him. We all like him for the most part, but she says she's not in love with him anymore. That she loves him, but she's not in love with him. He isn't always nice to her when he drinks. Never anything physically abusive, but he's been known to make rude remarks to her, tell her she's getting fat, etc. I guess over the years, it's worn her down. As much as I like Mike and I'll miss him, I'm proud of her for making the decision to move on in her life and search for happiness again.

Anyway, she told him they were done about a month and a half ago. He was devastated. However, over the past few weeks he's already dated several women (his way of "getting over Kristin") and has found a house to rent and is in the process of moving out. He still swings by here for beers and to hang out (with her blessing) and sometimes the two of them even come over together, as they're trying to remain as "civil" as possible through this whole thing.

I feel horrible for both of them because they're both upset about it in their own ways, etc. But here's where the dogs come in. My sister absolutely, positively will NOT part with those dogs. Here's the thing though. Now that Mike is moving out, he's not going to pay the mortgage on their house anymore and I don't blame him, frankly. This was her idea, not his and he can't afford to pay rent AND the mortgage. However, my sister only makes $1100 a month. The mortgage is $1000 a month. She obviously can't stay there and pay for it on her own. Here's where it gets tricky. She won't get rid of the dogs. None of us will let her move into our homes with those two beasts (as well as 3 cats... let's not forget the felines). But she can't pay for the house. Hmmm...

So the house is on the market as of last week, but my gut feeling is that will take a little while to sell. When it does sell, neither of them will walk away with much after the mortgage is paid off. A few thousand each at best. And when it does sell, where the hell is she going to go? She is never going to be find a place to rent that will allow her to have 2 HUGE dogs and 3 cats. I mean, what landlord is that stupid? Um, none. I'm actually getting pretty annoyed with her. She's refusing to look ahead. My parents have told her they'll help her out financially as much as they can until the house sells (and I think that is above and beyond what they need to do actually). But once it does sell, she's still screwed. Like I said, she'll never find a place to rent with all those animals. And she can't afford to buy a house. But when you try to talk to her about it, she just says she doesn't want to talk about it. Uh, ok. But what are you going to do, ya know? I'll be pissed if she lives off of my parents' hard-earned money for too long. Sure, they should help her out for awhile. But I'll be annoyed as all hell if she goes the next year or so sucking off my parents who really can't afford to support TWO homes. It's not their job anymore, ya know? She keeps saying "She's not moving anytime soon," and that "she'll stay in that house until they foreclose on it" if she has to. All because of 5 stupid pets. I'm sorry, but sometimes decisions we make as adults are not easy ones and I don't think she's acting very "adult-like" right now.

So I've stopped talking to her about it. I have a hard time holding my tongue around her and my annoyance is often very apparent. And you can't talk to her about anything without her getting completely defensive and pissed off and storming off and being mad at you for a few days. So I don't ask anymore. She's made her bed and now it's her duty to lie in it. The problem is, she wants to lie in it with 5 animals and I don't know how that's going to be possible. So the future should be rather interesting to say the least. [sigh]