As I mentioned in my story about dog allergies, I live in a complex surrounded by large, shedding dogs. Luckily, we (my girlfriend Sabrina and I) will be moving out in a week or so. I felt that maybe I should expound a little about that.

I moved up to Seattle in a hurry. I flew in Friday afternoon, and had to find a place by Saturday evening, as all my stuff was going to arrive via the mover's truck Sunday morning. With some fantastic help from Beverly here at Trusera, we scoured several places, and toward midday Saturday, I decided on my current apartment complex, which we'll call Taj Mahal.

It was November, and it had been raining off and on—as Seattle is known for. It seemed as though no one was at home in the complex that day, minus the sales lady. After touring some options, I decided that the place looked the nicest, and it was a short drive from work, so I'd take it. After all, they mentioned that they allowed pets with a $500 deposit, but of course I wouldn't be having other people's pets in my apartment!

We'll skip past the part where a lot of the sales temp's pitches were at best ill-informed, and fast-forward to spring and summer, where the grass 3 feet from my courtyard level apartment's sliding door became the nexxus of doggie piddle walks. In May, Seattle freakishly hit the 90s, and lack of A/C resulted in my opening every door and window in the place. Thus it began... everyone in the complex began their doggie piddle walks, which turned into "Let's take the dogs down to the courtyard and let them run around and take over the entire area, including people's porches, and if they're not careful, run into their apartments!"

My allergies flared up something fierce, with a sore throat, watery eyes and a dull headache. This continued until June (or Junuary, as I soon learned to call it) hit, and rain and cold came back into the picture. The dog dander and hair was being kept down by the rain, and I wasn't requiring open windows to stay comfortable in the place. All was reasonably well.

Summer reared it's ugly head, and the dogs and allergies came back with a vengance. In conjunction with our misery over noisy parties and no parking for Sabrina, we decided we'd had enough. Sadly, Taj Mahal decided that, hey, you're still in a contract, so either give us two full month's rent (if you live in Seattle, you know this is no small amount!) to break the lease or we can move you into a studio apartment somewhere on a higher floor (we're in a 2 bedroom place, so that was out). After looking at our legal options, we realised we'd have to drop the money and just get out.

It strikes me as odd that mould issues can get you out of an apartment and lease scot-free, but a similar allergy to the swarms of extremely hairy, large dogs that seem to be encouraged at the place just isn't that big of a deal.