Hello, my name is Amanda Grim, and my husband is Danny Grim. We both are huge animal lovers, and we especially love reptiles. We currently have 15 reptiles along with a cat and a dog, and we spoil all of them to the best of our ability.
On March 17th, 2022, our lives got flipped completely upside down. Our precious boy, Ares (who is a Savannah Monitor), fell through the broken screen window of our apartment and escaped. In a panic, I ran to the front office to ask for help if anyone had seen him; he's very large and scary looking, but is the biggest baby I've ever met. They helped by checking the security cameras and told us they saw him fall through, walk to the side walk, and then it cut out. We spent hours looking all over for him, I overheated and twisted my ankle while Danny combed every little spot over, and over again. We didn't find him, and knew we wouldn't; we were just minutes behind him and his escape, but that was enough time for him to disappear or be taken by someone.
We barely slept that night, didn't even eat much more than an apple each. Waking up the next morning, we went out to look one last time even though we knew it wasn't going to do anything. I went home early, and checked my email to see a notice from the front office saying:
"It has come to our attention that you have an unauthorized pet(s) on the premises, which violates your lease contract. Your pet(s) must be removed from the property immediately. All pets must be registered with the office and all proper and necessary information turned over before a pet is allowed on the premises.
Please consider this letter your notice that your apartment will be inspected by management on Monday, March 21, 2022 between 9:00 am -7:00 pm and April 1, 2022 between 9:00 am -7:00 pm.
If this violation is not cured by you removing or properly registering your dog, your lease agreement will terminate 14 days after this notice is served. Failure to comply will result in legal proceedings against you to evict you from your rental unit. Please note, that if you move out due to this 14 day notice to cure or quit, or are evicted due to this 14 day notice to cure or quit, you will be responsible for fees up to the end of your lease, along with all other applicable fees."
I immediately went to the front office and asked about this, and they told me "Exotic animals aren't allowed. Only cats and dogs. The reptiles weren't registered with the front office. You signed an adendum about this." and handed me a blank copy saying "no reptiles allowed."
We never, ever signed this agreement. We never would.
This came as a shock to both of us, as my husband had lived there over 2 years, and I had lived there over a year. The previous management knew about our animals, liked them even. Before moving in, we were told they were fine since they were in tanks and didn't make a mess of the apartment. The current management and everyone working there knew we had them, and would pet them when we brought them in with us; they would even see Ares basking in the sunlight in the windowsill every day.
Here we were, not even 24 hours after losing one of our family members, and being given the options of being evicted, giving up these animals whom most of were with us since they were small babies, or move out. We didn't have the money to be evicted or to pay the fines. We made the decision to give them up to a sanctuary, and I have never in my life hurt so much, or heard my husband cry. We both were puffy eyed and sick, lying in bed, when I heard Sprite--our Day Gecko--jumping around her tank and I thought how sad I was that I would never hear that again. Then, I heard Scrambles--our Uromastyx--snapping at his lentils. Anubis--our Nile Monitor--was asleep downstairs in his tank, basking in his favorite spot where he would watch Danny play video games; he's always been shy, but he trusts Danny with his life, he trusts him to fall in to a deep sleep by him, showing his belly, and trusts him to make the best decisions. At 7:30 that night I broke down, and told Danny "Even if I have to do it by myself, I'm moving all of the animals to Texas early." I scraped every last penny I had saved to get a U-haul, and through the rest of Friday night, all day Saturday, and Sunday morning, we both packed half of our apartment, all the tanks, all 17 animals, basic necessities, and embarked on the 17 hour drive to Texas from Myrtle Beach.
We were very lucky that his father let us move in to the house early, and everyone is together and safe. Once we settled we began to talk and think back on this entire situation. The apartment had suddenly gone back on its word, and chose us to punish. So many people had fish, rabbits, aggressive dogs, and reptiles; yet, we were the ones being punished, and all because I chose to go inside and ask for help finding a precious family member.
They cost us a lot of lost money from getting a Hello Fresh box in the mail at 3:15 p.m. Saturday, and keeping it in the office and not emailing us, allowing us to pick it up, until Sunday at noon. All of the raw food was spoiled and wasted, causing us to have to throw it all out. We had appliances that didn't work since day one, and no matter how many times we asked them to fix them, they never stayed fixed, or took months to actually be replaced. Our packages would sit there for weeks, or even up to a month; and when we went in to ask about it, they would ask "Did you get an email?" before saying to be patient so we could show proof of it actually being our package. We paid rent on time, every single month. We went in there daily, even knowing several of the workers by name; yet, over the course of less than 24 hours we were suddenly being treated like random people off the street that hadn't been living there.
I know all of that text is a lot, and I appreciate you reading all the way here! It's been a whirlwind of a week, and we've maxed out all ways of paying for what we needed to get here and make sure we could eat.
The money donated will be going towards:
- Paying the rest of the rent owed at the old apartment (unless we get out of the lease early)
- Paying for the storage POD needed to get the rest of our stuff moved here
- Gas for the first move, and the second move
- Vet bills in case the stress of the move was too much for any of the animals
- Groceries and other little necessities while we wait to hear back from jobs. We planned on moving in June, and my job opportunity I had wouldn't be able to hire me until then.
Every penny is appreciated, and every share is also appreciated!!
