# Have you had any run ins with PETA types or animal control?



## jesusica (Jan 13, 2006)

For leaving your dog in a "hot" car, for having outdoor kennel runs, for using prong or ecollars, for "hitting" the dogs in protection etc.

This is inspired by a discussion in which someone stated they would call animal control and/or cops if they saw a dog crated alone in a car that wasn't running, even if windows and/or doors were open and the car was parked in shade. So basically how the dogs are kept at training or wherever the group goes to eat lunch/dinner. I mentioned this and they still believe it's cruel.:rolleyes2:

I have had the cops called on me for being a "suspicious person" while out tracking, it wasn't a big deal at all, but I haven't run into anyone claiming I'm abusing my dog. Local cops all know me now anyways because of training.


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## Shaina (Apr 2, 2011)

I've had people shocked at the thought of leaving my dog in the car in 65 degree weather in a parking garage. Really? People just don't get it I guess.


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## Jax's Mom (Apr 2, 2010)

I've had one psycho lady threaten to break my windows and call the cops because my dog crate said LIVE ANIMAL on it and she insisted there was a dog in the crate and she heard it... There are all sorts of idiots that get riled up after seeing some extreme example on the news and I'm convinced most of them do it for attention. 
Do they honestly think that, in your example, someone would pay thousands of dollars for a dog, then thousands of hours training it, just to leave it in the car to die? 
How come no one is ever this concerned about MY well being and what's cruel to me? :rofl: feel free to break my office window and call some human right group to get me out of there because I can guarantee you it's cruelty.


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

I haven't had any trouble personally but I've seen similar comments made. I guess my response is that up until two months ago I've never HAD air conditioning so am I not allowed to own dogs? lol. Some times if it's breezy out it's actually MORE comfortable for me to open up my van and put the dogs in there rather than in the house. Being at training is really no different than being in the yard or even in the house (our main level is currently 80 and upstairs is 85). It's in the 90s and super humid here today and my dogs were outside with me for a long time. I gave them several shaded options (opened the garage and shed), I soaked the grass and patio with water, I let them dig cool holes in the dirt (normally I don't allow digging), I soaked the dogs with the hose, and I have two troughs filled with clean water. They are not forced to exercise in these temps (no jogging, biking, or long walks unless after dark) and if it's this hot at training the rounds are VERY short. If I need to I will wet my dogs and/or their bedding. They are kept fully shaded and always have water in their pails at all times. Even though I show dogs I'm not obsessed with grooming but I've been brushing them daily to pull out their undercoat. Coke (my long coated, heavily coated mutt) already got his "summer sani-trim" where I basically shave his belly. 

To me these things are common sense, but there are dog owners who are stupid. Every June, Kalamazoo, MI has the UKC Premier and EVERY year it is deathly hot and humid. Everyone looks out for dogs that are in distress and the PA system is constantly reminding people to check their dogs.

Luckily our SchH club trains on private property (like a remote farm) or at a police station so we don't have any random people dropping by. I do often bring dogs to work in my van but since that is for 8 hours and I can only check on them once every few hours I don't do this if it is more than 65 degrees (and when it is 45-65 I have them shaded and windows open).


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## Jax's Mom (Apr 2, 2010)

...just remembered another one, a lady at the dog park told everyone not to associate with me or my dog because I docked her tail. I didn't dock her tail, they're done at 2-5 days old, and I've seen it done, it isn't cruel, they're done while they're nursing and don't even stop to notice, I just found it weird that that was her solution...
...I've also been told that cropping GSD ears is cruel and it's not natural for them to stand like that. Mkay.


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

We train in a highly visible area, right next to busy railroad tracks, so cars are stopped regularly for the trains and can witness our training. Because we are on the Police/Public Safety property, I think many assume we are affiliated with the police dept K9's.... So they don't bother us. Though, now and then neighborhood people come and observe, we don't indulge them. Seems they always ask if they can pet one of the dogs! 

Because most people who train in SchH or agility outdoor venues take extra precautions(crate fans, water buckets in crates, reflective mesh coverings, etc) I don't see how anyone can think our dogs are overheating in vehicles.

I'm constantly checking on my dog in the heat of summer to make sure he is comfortable, and if it is too hot, we will leave. 
I won't leave my dog in my vehicle in a public parking lot, ever in warm weather.


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## jesusica (Jan 13, 2006)

We're in Texas, it goes without saying that it gets pretty hot here. 90s in the summer is a cold front, and a rare one at that. I think training in perpetually hot environments makes you a little more aware of a dog's true limits and how effective certain things are in cooling them. Of course our environment is nothing like what military dogs are dealing with right now and as far as I know there's not an epidemic of those dogs collapsing from heat stroke.

In 4 years of heavy training in this geographical area I have known one dog to overheat and that was at a seminar. The dog overheated because it had a breathing problem the owner did not tell anyone about. It overheated after protection, before even making it into its crate, so it had nothing to do with how the dog was contained between training sessions.

I can sort of understand where those people come from. I remember first starting and being like omg I have to LEAVE HIM IN THE CAR are you kidding me it's 100 degrees?! That didn't last long. :laugh: Heck yesterday I drove 1,100 miles just me and my dog. It was above 90 degrees. Was I not supposed to go to the bathroom at gas stations???  And if we hadn't made that long drive yesterday thus making me be lazy today, today would have been an example of me going training and then heading to a family gathering with my dog. He would have had to chill in the car the whole time, with precautions of course.

There's such a huge difference between leaving a dog in a sealed up car vs. a properly ventilated car but people don't get it. One person said they wouldn't call AC if someone had put the dog in a crate under a tree but they would if the crate was in the ventilated car under the same tree. What's the difference?!?!

I'm really not sure how I would react if AC or the cops showed up claiming I was mistreating my dog.


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## Countrymama (May 22, 2011)

I had a run-in with animal control while we lived on a military post. There was a huge field behind our house and my neighbor and i would take our dogs out to play in it. Since Tessa was still in training I had a 35 foot rope i would tie to her collar so that she could play with her friends safely. One day after playing i decided to wash the car and tied the rope around the tree 15 feet from me for Tessa to relax while i washed and she got some play time with the hose. After the car was clean I brought her in and crated her, wet and tired but happy. Since the rope was wet i wrapped it around the tree to dry before i left for my errand and let my neighbor know. I came home to find a citation on my door about leaving my dog tied out and unattended citing the rope on the tree as evidence. What!? My neighbor saw them post it and explained what had happened but they didn't care. I was less than pleased by the citation and called them right away! I made it very clear not only had she not been left out there but if she had, they would have never made it the door to place the citation! The head of the office came out and saw that Tessa was and had been happily in her crate and the rope was simply around the tree til it dried. I told them if they'd like to fine me for a rope around a tree with nothing on it, fine but I would not pay anything saying i mistreated my dog! When he heard from my neighbor and saw the situation for himself he was peeved and not only dropped the claim but made the guy apologize in person that night.


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## middleofnowhere (Dec 20, 2000)

Our training this summer will be protection & obedience and we will start at, sigh, 7 am because it is too hot for the dogs even if they are in the shade.

When I traveled in summer, I had two sets of keys. When I went to the toilet, I left the truck running with the A/C on. Moving down here in August, I needed to sleep in the afternoon. I parked in the shade and was going to let the dogs out to toilet but the pavement was too hot. I left the A/C on and all three of us took a nap in the cab of the truck. 
Vehicles heat up fast even with windows down. So if I see your dog in a car, in summer & you aren't out there overheating with the dog, I will call. I expect you to do the same thing for my dog.


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## Lilie (Feb 3, 2010)

I housed a rescue horse once for a couple of weeks. It was starved and very thin, therefore when I brought her home I placed her in our front pasture alone during the day. I didn't want my horses to bully her as she was very weak. 

Someone passing our house called the Sherrif's dept. due to the fact she looked starved. They came out to the house, the neighbor's called me, I came home and had to allow the officers to investigate my place. No big deal really, they just made sure I had ample food and water for all of my animals. I showed them the paper work I had from the rescue, stating the horse belonged to them and I was just housing her until the foster home was ready. 

I wasn't bothered by it at all. I would much rather be investigated because someone called, then to have a animal actually starve to death because no body wanted to get involved.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

I had one guy waiting for me at 8 am in the parking lot of a grocery store. It started with him telling me how he hated to see an animal abused and ended with him screaming obscenties. He's lucky I didn't let my collie out of the car to meet him. He always took great exception to anyone being to loud around me.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Hmmmm. Two incidents, not necessarily run-ins though, or maybe they were, I report, you decide:

I called about the neighbor's pit that kept coming over and charging my dogs every time I tried to get them in the car to take them somewhere. Someone else called about a golden retriever that they found and tied out front. The dog warden was on vacation, the messages mixed, and this lady came to my house in search of a Golden Retriever. Before I realized she was there, she walked all the way around my property and counted all of my dogs. I thought that was wierd. How I know she counted them was that when I went out to see what she wanted, she asked me about the Golden Retriever and I told her that I did not have a Golden retriever, I have eight GSDs. She said, she knew, she counted them. We talked for a bit, and she left and that was a couple of years ago, and I never heard anything more about it.

Second possible incident: two years ago in July, when I had Jenna's litter, I had a couple call while I was waiting for another group of people to visit the pups, and they asked if they could come. Since every thing was ready for visitors, I saw no harm in it and said sure. 

When they came, I leashed Jenna and met them at the car with my leashed, controlled bitch. The woman came out of the car and was litterally freaking out that Jenna might bite her. I told her I would put her in her kennel -- which was kind of stupid because the pups were out front in a pen and if they wanted to grab one and run with it, they could have, but they were old and not that spry, and I just needed to cross the living room and back to put her in her kennel.

Then they started asking weird questions, like oh, they have that for shade (I had a dog crate halved an in the puppy pen. Picture:









And then they asked me some other questions, and then the woman said they cannot get to that bucket, where is their water? Answering her own question, she said with a real nasty tone, oh those little bottles... Another picture:









Annoyed, I did not bother to explain that those little bottles ensure the puppies a FRESH supply of water, water that has not been pooped in or tracked through with poop, or other stuff, like tree leavings, wood chips etc. 

They asked me about kennels, and I let them see my back yard where I have my kennels, but I probably should not have. But my other people were there, then. These people started asking me really nasty questions, about raising dogs, and how they should not be allowed in the house, and all kinds of other stuff. Finally, just getting nods and grunts from me, they gave it up and left. My other people, asked me if I was selling them a puppy, and I said Over My Dead Body! They were both relieved. 

Strange encounters of the puppy buyer kind, but they could have been PETA people, because of the way the lady was scared of my girl. Who goes to buy or look at GSDs who is afraid of the breed?
And the questions about shedding in the house, and how they did not think dogs should be inside -- I really do not know. But nothing came of that either. 

The puppies were never left unattended in the front yard. Because someone Could try to steal them.


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## Jax's Mom (Apr 2, 2010)

If any of those puppies complain, I'll take their place!


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## TitonsDad (Nov 9, 2009)

I'm thankful that we train on property owned by Utah Highway Patrol for this very reason. The property is butt up against a bike trail and we've actually seen people fall off bikes rubber necking the field while a dog is being "beaten" with dummy stick in protection.


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## Countrymama (May 22, 2011)

It's so funny that you use those bottles! I did that with Tessa as a pup when I would have to crate her for longer than I would have liked to make sure she had water. It took her some time but she learned to use it just fine. Ziva hates anything in her crate other than her favorite toy...no bottle for her.


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

A few times at training I have brought two keys and run the AC. These were times when I trained with a friend during the hottest part of the day and we had to park in a big parking lot, no shade, and the van was out of sight from the field. I can't rely on this anymore though b/c my AC goes in and out. My dogs are in better shape than I am so if I'm out there working so can they. Yesterday at training I went to check on them and wished *I* could be lying down in the van! It was shaded, got a little breeze, and felt nice compared to sitting out in the sun.


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## 1der_girl (Aug 16, 2006)

When we lived in GA our next door neighbor was afraid of our 2 shepherds (never left unattended, even in our fenced yard, well trained, even tempered, all around great, easy going dogs). She used to call animal controll on us all the time, about our viscious dogs that she was sure were going to come over the 6 foot chain link fence and eat her in her garden... anyway, the first time AC came to the house, I invited them in, they met the dogs, I showed them all relevent rabies and dog liscence info, and they said it was obviously her problem, not ours. She kept calling AC untill they told her I wasn't doing anything wrong. 
Then she started calling the police- "excessive barking" disturbing her peace... each time the cops would come by, roll their windows down and sit in front of our house for a few minutes, then leave. Eventually they told her if she kept calling they would issue her a citation for making a false complaint.
Then she got a lawyer to write us a letter saying she feared for her safety and we needed to build our own 6 foot privacy fence 2 feet inside of our property line (her 6 foot chainlink was on the property line). We ignored that one.
Then she called the Department of Agriculture and told them that we had a large scale breeding operation (with two fixed dogs!?!?). They came out and searched our home/yard for the large scale breeding operation (the guy even looked in all the closets- he was very thurough), and dismissed the complaint.
Then we moved out (thank the Lord!!)
I really, really did not like that neighbor!!


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## Jax's Mom (Apr 2, 2010)

Liesje said:


> A few times at training I have brought two keys and run the AC.


I discovered a feature on my remote start that will allow the car to keep running forever (or until you touch the brake) with the keys removed exactly for that purpose... However, that doesn't help you much if you don't trust your AC... Just thought I'd share.


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

i lived in an apartment once and a neighbor
called the police and the ac on me because
he thought i let my dog use the lawn along
the sidewalk to poop. when the ac showed
up i gave them a dog show. they were impressed.
i didn't get a citation. the police showed up because
after the ac left i climbed his fence and left a note
with choice wording.


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## GermanShepherds6800 (Apr 24, 2011)

The prong gets the most but I have noticed an elevated attack thing lately for having purebred dogs. It seems that seems to annoy the most these days. And we are called snobs by the mixed breed owners lol


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## Jessiewessie99 (Mar 6, 2009)

Never had Animal Control called to my house because our dogs were in trouble or someone thought they were "abused". When I see a dog in a car, I will see if the windows are open(not completely, because we don't need loose dogs)I will watch the dog a bit to see if he/she is breathing heavily, or looks as if they are in danger. But I hardly see anyone here in my area do anything abusive towards dogs.

Now I would love a few words with PETA.


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## JeanKBBMMMAAN (May 11, 2005)

Is this in the Schutzhund section because it's supposed to be related to Schutzhund? If so, hit notify and we can change the title to better reflect that.


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

From Jesusica's opening post, I do think she meant the thread to be related to SchH training.


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## jesusica (Jan 13, 2006)

Yes, do you mean hit "report post"?


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Just noticed that it was in the schutzhund section. 

Once I was training with Babs and Jenna, and felt sorry for needing to leave Jenna in my car (before SUV), so I left the car running with the AC on. The little bitch locked me out! I had to have someone call my parents for me, and have Dad come up and rescue us with my spare keys. 

No more loose dogs in running cars. SUV has crates, and usually leaving the back open and windows partly down is sufficient -- never had anyone try to call police on me, but I always park at a restaurant (after the show) where I can watch the vehicles to ensure nobody does anything major stupid with my dogs.


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## VomBlack (May 23, 2009)

I think it was last spring, I went and trained with a friend and their club for the day and the training was held at my friend's house (he had a large yard with a privacy fence all around). It was the first warm day of the year, all the dogs were out in the driveway in shaded vehicles with doors/windows open and/or AC. Somebody had walked outside the fence to get their dog and came back saying the ASPCA was in front of the house. The ASPCA officer that got out happened to be someone I had trained with before (and im now training at his club..lol)

He got a call from the neighbors that there was dog fighting going on and that there were dogs locked up in cars. Obviously he was familiar with schutzhund and ring sports so when he came to check everything out he wasn't alarmed, and even stayed a bit to watch the dogs work and chat with people. 

I mean on one hand it's good that they called in on suspected dog fighting but I guess that wasn't the first time that they had done that, I guess they didn't exactly get along so the neighbors would call on whatever they could just to cause trouble.


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## hunterisgreat (Jan 30, 2011)

I've had an animal control officer warn me for having my dog in my car. It's an FJ (the white roof and vertical windows make it barely, as in 5 degrees or so, warmer than outside with windows up... Designed for this purpose), all windows and rear window were fully open, a bowl full of water was in the floor board, and it was about 83 degrees. He said "your dog needs to be inside in A/C". He was sleeping, and not even panting when I came up


Also was tracking in a neighborhood field and afterwards pulled out a wedge to play with him. Lady stopped and cussed me out for training him for pit fighting lol. I explained what I was actually doing and she said "oh.. I'm sorry, it looked like you were training him for dog fighting" lol


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## IntheDawgHaus (Nov 11, 2010)

*Mostly morons......*

I have had people think that a Gentle Leader was a muzzle. One person thought it was gross that I picked up the poop,..???(what does he do with his dog poop???, making a guest house). Had the neighborhood drunk get mad and tell all of the other neighbors we abused our dogs (we took in foster dogs for the shelter). On the other hand the GSD breed has it's share of idiots that want to make their dogs "tough" by abusing them, and people who don't think animals feel pain, think, burp, fart. You get the idea. If you think dogs don't fart, come to my house and experiance the joy. Oh and yes cropping of tails and ears does hurt, been there seen it. The key is for the vet to use a pain blocker. If I want my dog to look like Spock, we'll both go in and have it done at the same time.
Susan G and Xoe, Aeryn:blush: and Max


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

I was walking a dog one night at about 3AM and I had Babsy in the car with the back up. The local police saw me and came over and asked me if I had a dog in my vehicle -- it was about a block and a half away. 

I said yes, and asked if she was barking, like I really could not believe that. He said no. But that's dangerous, someone might steal her. I told him not Babs, she would bite their arm clean off. Yeah, maybe I was a little exaggerating but he does not need to know that.


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## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

I don't know if this counts or not!!

When we were living in Germany we were in apartment building, on the 2nd floor. There was no A/C and in the summertime it got really hot. 

We had a balcony attached to the living room - and the balcony was nice and shady with a tile floor. In the summer, we would leave the door cracked so the dogs could go out and lay on the balcony if they preferred. My computer desk was right by the door so the dogs knew I was right there - if they heard me move they'd come in, and they were welcome to come and go as they pleased (unless it was storming, then they got locked inside with us). The balcony was safe with a solid and pretty high railing and I was always right there to be sure they were safe. When we went to bed they came into the bedroom with us. When we were out, they were crated in the living room.

So - one day someone left an anonymous letter on the stairwell door - not on our apartment door but on the stairwell that everyone used! The note basically said that if we didn't want the dogs to live in the house with us that we should take them to the local animal shelter (and gave the address) and that God's creatures didn't deserve to be neglected. It was a full page letter, I don't remember much of the other details...

I guess from a certain angle the door to the balcony door could have looked like it was closed, but that spineless anonymous letter really ticked me off!

Also - one day I was tracking at a park with my TD and several other club members. A guy rode up on a bike and was circling the TD's dog trailer and then started yelling at the TD about how he was going to call the cops because dogs shouldn't be caged or confined, that it was abusive to keep dogs in crates and in the dog trailer. The guy got pretty confrontational but luckily the park police patrolled frequently and when the guy saw them coming he rode off. The park police told us how the guy was nuts and they'd had to chase him off a few times. It was scary but at least he didn't pay any attention to the rest of us!


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## MrBeast (Jun 1, 2011)

In 2007 I moved from Montana to Texas with my GSD Palex. I had just got out of the trucking business and moved to Texas to go back to college. On my way I stopped in Omaha Nebraska to see a girl I had been chasing after a bit, and spent an entire day there. Since I had most of my belongings the bed of my truck, I left Palex in the back of the truck. Mind you this was the beginning of March, and the high was about 65 and the low 55. I had checked the weather forecast, 10% chance of precip. 

Palex had food and water, and he was right outside of my motel room, I had got a ground floor room for this reason and backed the truck in.

The entire night didn't have any problem other than one person who decided to come up and snoop around the truck and got a face full of German Shepherd barking at him. You see I raised Palex on a big truck, and he knew his job was to guard the truck. 

He wouldn't bark at you for getting into the vehicle next to us, he wouldn't bark at you for walking by. He knew his job was to protect the truck. 

Well the next morning I am eating breakfast in the Dennys next door. Getting ready to ht the road. I get a call on my cell phone, it is the motel, they say that the police are looking for me. I pay my bill at the restaurant and go back to my truck, there is an officer there waiting for me. 

The officer proceeds to read me the riot act about leaving my dog in a truck how cruel and unusual it is, and I explain to her that normally he rides in the cab with me, and that I am moving, and that he is in the back of the truck to keep people from helping themselves to my stuff! 

She then tells me, well he seems really nice, he didn't bark at me, I said to her "you didn't try to go through what is in the back of the truck did you?" she said she had not, and I told her that is why. 

She then said "What are you going to do if he gets out?" I told her he wouldn't, she said "how do you know that?" I said this is why, I reached for the tail gate handle, and like clockwork the way we had trained so many times Palex sat his butt down and waited like a good boy. 

She said I needed to take him in the motel room with me, I told her fine, Walked over, opened the door, and then gave him the command to come inside and he didn't move an inch until I did. 

I think at this point the cop was feeling pretty dumb, she said "well I tried offering him a couple of milk bones, but he just spit them out over the side of the truck" I said I know, he doesnt eat food from strangers.

When I went back to the Motel office to check out I found out what the real deal was, the motel manager demanded that I give him a non refundable 100.00 pet deposit for having a dog in my room. This is the same manager who called me telling the police were looking for me. 

It was pretty obvious he called them for that very reason.

Luckily for me I had paid for my room in cash, I told him to go pack sand on the rest. I wasn't about to give him a 100.00 deposit for my dog being in my room for 10 minutes. 

Oh and a word from the wise, if you are traveling and must stay in a motel room, bring a sleeping bag and sleep on top of their bed, don't sleep in the sheets they provide. You don't know what kind of goo you are going to lay in.


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