Update Regarding Court

So, if you've been following along, you know that I was advised to call Sue at Animal Control and set up a time for her to come see the house and verify that the animals and business-related-stuff was gone.

If you've talked with me over the past few days, you're probably aware that I've had a discussion with everyone on the planet about what exactly falls under "business related stuff."  Because let's be honest, technically, just about everything can be business-related, if the city wants to be turds.  A desk?  Oh, well you use that for business.  Printer paper?  You use that to print out labels... and so on so forth.

So, Wednesday (yesterday), I called up Animal Control.  Sue was out on a call, so I left a message and they said she would call me back.

This morning, I noticed I had a piece of mail (I saw this in my email notification) from the court system.  I found that a little odd, but whatever... I saw this when I wasn't at home, so nothing I could really do, and couldn't really look at it til I got home.

Took two trips to storage today, and on the way back from the second one, got a phone call from Animal Control.  Talked to Sue, and she told me that she can't set up an appointment to come out and verify that the animals and business stuff are gone until closer to the next court date.  Wait... what next court date?  So I asked, my next court date is August 20th, which is a Thursday, and she said she could probably come out like that Monday prior, to see that everything is gone.  She said then, we go to court on that Thursday, and she will tell the judge that yes, everything is gone, and then we will see what the judge says at that point.

Here's the insane part -- prior to this last court date (a week ago), I point-blank asked Sue, if I have the animals gone prior to court, should I call you, so you can come verify they are gone, so on and so forth? And she was like, no, it won't make any difference, you will need to come to court.  Now, she is telling me to do exactly just that!  WTF?  

Oh, but it gets better.  Because, after all, this is Hammond, let's not forget.  I drop off Brad, get home, open the mail from the court.  I see the court date is now moved to August 20th, like Sue said... but get this... the reason for the court date extension to 8/20 is due to "defendant's failure to appear."  Um, EXCUSE ME?  I was THERE!  Sue was the one who told me, no, you don't need to go into the court room, call me and we'll schedule the appointment, we are done here.  If this isn't trying to set me up to look bad, I dunno what it is.  But wtf Hammond???

So, now I have my calendar marked to call Animal Control the week prior to court, to talk to Sue about coming out and all of that, and court is set for 8/20.  *sigh*