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Wherein I lose my temper
Aug. 23rd, 2013 08:59 amOr rather lost, because this happened a week ago. However, since I rarely fly off the handle, and even more rarely insult people, it's worth recording.
Last Friday (long weekend) I was feeding the street cats living around my building, as usual around 7 a.m.
Now what you need to know is: the city of Skopje does provide public dustbins, the huge ones which usually come with a sliding lid, but since the municipality is more or less broke, they can't afford new ones, obviously. So they buy whatever they can get -- and not only dustbins, this is true for buses, lorries etc. as well -- from other European cities, which give away old equipment at very low prices when they buy something new. Therefore the dustbins aren't in very good shape, and I have yet to see one with a lid (I suppose they've been stolen and sold for scrap metal). Our building has four of them, all lidless, lined up along the narrow, dead-end road leading up to it. Needless to say that a) the bins are smelly, especially in summer, b) the area around them isn't overly clean, because, well, it's Macedonia, and c) there are swarms of wasps in and around the bins. However, the bins, being huge (about 1,5 x 1,2 x 1 metre) provide a very handy protected corner for me to put the cat food -- passing cars are very, very unlikely to hit one of the cats. Besides, it's already dirty and smelly there, so a bit of cat food doesn't make much of a difference; not to mention that the wet food is gone within ten minutes after I put it there, and the dry food doesn't smell or rot. Otherwise, there's only a big plastic box for water, which doesn't smell either.
OK, so I was feeding the cats, when the entrance door opened and out came a woman I'd never seen before -- not unusual, since the building is huge and I keep earlier hours than Macedonians usually do. She had a suitcase and a dustbin bag, and came down to the dustbins to throw it away. Being the polite person I am, I said Good Morning and then returned to my business of distributing food without stepping on paws (not always easy).
She went back up to the entrance, where she'd left her suitcase, but after a few steps stopped and came back. I looked up and was subjected to an unintelligible but furious and rather aggressively delivered tirade. It wasn't Macedonian, and it wasn't really English -- although I think that's what she was trying to speak -- but there was a German accent so thick you could cut it with a knife. So I straightened up and said, in German, "If you have something you want to say to me, you can do so in German."
And off she went again -- definitely not a native speaker, but with a heavy Bavarian accent -- that this was a shame, and why did I feed the cats, and this couldn't continue, and she'd stop me, bla, bla, bla.
Though pretty angry, I tried to stay calm and said, "Look, the cats don't harm anybody, and it's already dirty here, and by the way, who are you and do you live here?"
Yes, she lived here, and the cats were awful and a liability and so on and so forth.
By then I'd finished feeding and watering the cats, and went back to the entrance, accompanied by the harridan haranguing me. When she said, again, that she'd find the means to stop this and get rid of the cats, I turned and said, "Lady, if you dare do anything of the kind, which is a civil offence even in Macedonia, I'm going to denounce you to the authorities, and you better believe me."
"What you're doing is an offence, too!" she snapped.
"I don't think so," I said. "But mistreating animals certainly is. Good day."
"Don't you think of the children?" she shouted after me.
"I beg your pardon? What about the children?"
"They can't play out here anymore!"
"Oh," I said. "It's news to me that there are any children in this building who habitually play around the dustbins. So I suppose they're yours, which would be fitting, considering your dirty mouth." (Yep, that's the bit I'm not proud of, because as I said, I don't do personal insults)
What did she say? "Same to you!"
I merely replied, "Well, aren't you clever -- coming up with that answer must have taken real effort!" and left her out there.
Fortunately she's obviously more bark than bite, because nothing has happened so far -- the cats are all there, and their food and water are being left in peace.
Last Friday (long weekend) I was feeding the street cats living around my building, as usual around 7 a.m.
Now what you need to know is: the city of Skopje does provide public dustbins, the huge ones which usually come with a sliding lid, but since the municipality is more or less broke, they can't afford new ones, obviously. So they buy whatever they can get -- and not only dustbins, this is true for buses, lorries etc. as well -- from other European cities, which give away old equipment at very low prices when they buy something new. Therefore the dustbins aren't in very good shape, and I have yet to see one with a lid (I suppose they've been stolen and sold for scrap metal). Our building has four of them, all lidless, lined up along the narrow, dead-end road leading up to it. Needless to say that a) the bins are smelly, especially in summer, b) the area around them isn't overly clean, because, well, it's Macedonia, and c) there are swarms of wasps in and around the bins. However, the bins, being huge (about 1,5 x 1,2 x 1 metre) provide a very handy protected corner for me to put the cat food -- passing cars are very, very unlikely to hit one of the cats. Besides, it's already dirty and smelly there, so a bit of cat food doesn't make much of a difference; not to mention that the wet food is gone within ten minutes after I put it there, and the dry food doesn't smell or rot. Otherwise, there's only a big plastic box for water, which doesn't smell either.
OK, so I was feeding the cats, when the entrance door opened and out came a woman I'd never seen before -- not unusual, since the building is huge and I keep earlier hours than Macedonians usually do. She had a suitcase and a dustbin bag, and came down to the dustbins to throw it away. Being the polite person I am, I said Good Morning and then returned to my business of distributing food without stepping on paws (not always easy).
She went back up to the entrance, where she'd left her suitcase, but after a few steps stopped and came back. I looked up and was subjected to an unintelligible but furious and rather aggressively delivered tirade. It wasn't Macedonian, and it wasn't really English -- although I think that's what she was trying to speak -- but there was a German accent so thick you could cut it with a knife. So I straightened up and said, in German, "If you have something you want to say to me, you can do so in German."
And off she went again -- definitely not a native speaker, but with a heavy Bavarian accent -- that this was a shame, and why did I feed the cats, and this couldn't continue, and she'd stop me, bla, bla, bla.
Though pretty angry, I tried to stay calm and said, "Look, the cats don't harm anybody, and it's already dirty here, and by the way, who are you and do you live here?"
Yes, she lived here, and the cats were awful and a liability and so on and so forth.
By then I'd finished feeding and watering the cats, and went back to the entrance, accompanied by the harridan haranguing me. When she said, again, that she'd find the means to stop this and get rid of the cats, I turned and said, "Lady, if you dare do anything of the kind, which is a civil offence even in Macedonia, I'm going to denounce you to the authorities, and you better believe me."
"What you're doing is an offence, too!" she snapped.
"I don't think so," I said. "But mistreating animals certainly is. Good day."
"Don't you think of the children?" she shouted after me.
"I beg your pardon? What about the children?"
"They can't play out here anymore!"
"Oh," I said. "It's news to me that there are any children in this building who habitually play around the dustbins. So I suppose they're yours, which would be fitting, considering your dirty mouth." (Yep, that's the bit I'm not proud of, because as I said, I don't do personal insults)
What did she say? "Same to you!"
I merely replied, "Well, aren't you clever -- coming up with that answer must have taken real effort!" and left her out there.
Fortunately she's obviously more bark than bite, because nothing has happened so far -- the cats are all there, and their food and water are being left in peace.
