Help Us Escape a Toxic Living Situation - A Moving Fund

Over the past two and a half years, a lot has happened. I got an apartment with a coworker because we both needed a new place to stay, and it proceeded to be one of the worst decisions of my life. In order to tell the full story, I'll be going over everything that has happened since February of 2023. This story may be triggering for some and contains pet death, pet abuse, manipulation, and overall just being a bad person.

It started with me needing a roommate. I was suggested to ask a coworker, who also needed a roommate. We knew it wasn't going to be a perfect match, but it didn't seem like a terrible idea at the time. We could not have been more wrong.

It started with her refusing to do her chores or letting them pile up to the point that MOLD was growing. We had an agreement: I would cook for her, but she had to do the dishes. She did not. At first, I did everything, but I got tired of cleaning up after her pretty quickly. I would do my half of the dishes, stopped feeding her, and wash whatever I cooked with. The dishes still piled up. I had to throw some away just due to the mold stains or rust that formed.

Her other chore was taking out the trash. It needs to be done once a week. Trash bags upon trash bags would pile up. Once again, I did this for a while, but I'm not a slave. I do the rest of the cleaning in the house. She never cleans her litter box. Her one single litter box for her two cats can go 2 to 3 or more months without being touched. Maintenance once came to the apartment and gagged at the smell.

Come October 15, 2023, she kills one of my dogs. I was at work when I got a call (not from her), but from the lady who ran over my dog. My roommate had let my dogs out of their kennels while I was not home and proceeded to prop the front door open, screen and all. The Shiba, of course, ran, and the little rescue followed. The rescue, named Cid, did not make it across the interstate highway that is a few steps away from my house. The Shiba, Midna, proceeded to be missing for over 24 hours. My roommate took the day off work, giving her boss the excuse that "she needed to help." She did not. She sat in her room playing video games while I and the person who hit Cid looked for my missing dog. Midna ended up coming home herself sometime later after I took my boy to get cremated. She was depressed and refusing to eat for an entire week.

I found Romani, my service dog drop-out, the same day I picked up my boy's ashes. Friends paid for me to get her, and it helped Midna a lot. Sure, it was a bit too early for another dog, but Midna needed it, and honestly, so did I. She's been a blessing.

I had to buy padlocks to put on the kennels because even after that, my roommate would not stop letting my dogs out when I wasn't home. I wasn't letting that happen again. She yelled at me, blamed me, and overall did not like the fact that I locked up MY dogs so that SHE couldn't get to them.

She has intentionally poisoned Midna several times, feeding her food and treats that she's allergic to, making Midna extremely sick, once to the point where her anal glands actually ruptured. She's constantly yelling and screaming at her own cats instead of training them.

She has tried to use my dogs against me, shorting me on rent or bills, and then making threats against my animals to get away with it. She would eat my food that I prepped or bought for myself without asking. She has told me she couldn't afford to pay me rent or bills and instead bought an $80 video game.

Her lack of cleaning has only gotten worse. The smell of cat feces and mold constantly wafts around the house. Her cats love to pee and poop on the carpet in her room, and yet she takes her time cleaning it up when it is convenient for her. I once again started cleaning her dishes after waiting for over THREE months, not wanting more of them to be thrown away.

My mental health has been suffering, and I need to escape. After she killed my dog, I tried, but I didn't have enough time by the time the lease ended to save up and get a new place. I was then adamant about leaving once the next year was up, then I lost my job last June. I had several thousand saved up to pay for everything that was needed to move, but that quickly went to paying my half of the rent and bills. I started doing Uber and other things to pay for the bills, and that's where I'm still at.

There's honestly a lot more, but this is the major stuff. I am adamant about moving now, I need to escape, I cannot last another year, I constantly fear for my dog's lives. She has not changed her ways nor did she ever even apologize for killing one of my animals. She has shown little to no remorse.

But why is this so much? I am constantly researching places to move to, but this math comes down to:

Honestly, I am hoping to get an extra month or two of rent saved as well, but that might be asking too much. Having that extra would make it easier to find a place to live. I have over a decade of perfect or near-perfect rental history.

I do need other things like new tires, but I'll worry about that later. Everything is pointless if I can't get the money to actually pay people once I start applying.

I plan on starting to send in applications in early June, as apartments for August are starting to become available. I know there's a lot, and I do have more stories, but I need to get out of here before myself or another one of my animals gets hurt because of her.