Neighbors and Dogs

There are dog people in this world. For those of us who love dogs and kids it is hard to understand how people can get so upset about the noise that come with them.

When I bought my house I learned that across the street was a childless couple that was not, as they say, family friendly. I have never tried to antagonize them. I truly believe that it takes all types and I tell my kids that we should feel sorry for them, if they are so unhappy as to complain about kids and dogs and incidentally our neighbors tree and leaves then they are not very happy people.

Our dogs go out on a run. Sometimes they bark. Sometimes they bark because they want to come in. Sometimes they bark when they see a squirrel or cat or in the case of my Corgi a leaf that is not in the right place. Sometimes they bark when they are talking with another dog two streets up. Sometimes they bark because they are ....dogs.

We have a basketball hoop out front. The boys are a little older now, and play more at gyms than they do out front. They still do occasionally and certainly in the past played alot. Before I got sick and my shoulders and neck did not work I used to play with them, as much as I could. Still in the seven o clock hour in the summer we would watch them slam their windows down in complaint of the noise of happy kids playing outside.

It is confusing. Even worse is that sometimes the wife is a little scary in her oddness. Last summer my wife told her to stop yelling at our house..that we had dogs. Basically telling her to live with it. I am outside as much as I can in the summer with the dogs, I hear dogs barking all around her house. Behind, Left and Right and certainly at times at our house. For someone programmed to despise dogs that must be irritating.

A couple times in the last few weeks when they dogs have been out on a cold night and been more insistent that it was time to come in than our response was I have heard a weird voice and there our neighbor is ..outside yelling at the house. I am just not sure if I can understand that. Last night a knock on our door occurred twenty minutes after she had been seen yelling at the house. I must admit for a moment I wondered if she was there, with a gun. It was my daughter. No big deal. Having had that thought however gave me pause.

Is this woman just a grump or is she getting worse. It bears watching. It is not just us, we have an elderly couple on the corner who has a big tree. When the wind blows wrong the leaves go from their yard to these dog haters. Do they rake them up. No. Usually they use a leaf blower to send them back. How silly. This fall when the remnants of a hurricane came through a branch fell from the same tree. That Monday morning evidently a complaint was made to the city Arborist as now our corner neighbors have a big X on their gigantic, majestic tree. It would seem leaves will not be a concern soon.

We came home two years ago from a Little League game to see a police car. A dog had been left out, not in his kennel, and barked at another dog going by. Our neighbor, we think, came over and tried to get him to be quiet which of course caused him to go crazier. So when we arrived home, there were the police. Ridiculous. I half expected to see our dog Charlie being taken away in handcuffs.

I never expected or anticipated living in a residential, solid middle class neighborhood having to deal with this. Should not people who want no noise live out in the middle of nowhere?

I am trying to be patient, but am not sure what to do next. We really do try to be considerate with the dogs, but they are dogs. Dogs do, at times, bark.