Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Dog Trouble

Everyone has a weird neighbor right? Unless you are the weird neighbor, I won't mention any names (steve). Anyway, our weird neighbor came over and told me that we needed to complain to the city about the dog on the next street that barks a lot.
Weirdo rings the doorbell, I open the wood door but not the security screen which is very difficult to see through from the outside.
Weirdo: can I talk to you
Me: yes
Weirdo: I can't see you
Me: I know, I am not going to open the door because then the dogs will want to go out (silently I say "and you're a weirdo")
Weirdo: Well you could shoot them ha ha
Me: (silent)
Weirdo: We're trying to complain to the city about this dog that barks a lot, I've tried to talk to the owner and he won't shut it up. We need three people from different addresses for the complaint.
Me: The dog doesn't bother us
Weirdo: Well you could help us.
This is where I think back and get mad at myself. I should have just said no, the dog doesn't bother us and we don't want to complain. I wouldn't want someone complaining to the city about our dogs. Now the dog over there is noisy. In fact it whines and cries like it's being beaten. I know it's not because I've talked to my neighbor across the street whose backyard borders on the one the dog is in. She says that the dog has a bowling ball it plays with and when it rolls out of reach she cries at it until someone gives it back to her or takes it away. My neighbor said that the Weirdo and the guy who owns the dog have a sort of feud going on and the make complaints on eachother all the time. This is even more compelling a reason to stay out of it. I told him my name and address because I wanted him to go away. Then I thought about it. It's not fair for him to involve us in his little war with the neighbor and though it's not his fault I gave in so easy it is his fault for pushing the issue after I told him it doesn't bother us.
I looked up the complaint process and I would have to fill out a form, document incidents of excessive barking and sign it to be included in this complaint. I will not do that. My across-the-street neighbor said that Weirdo knocked on her door and she looked at him through the window from where she was sitting, made eye contact and ignored him. He pounded a few more times and then went around the back and pounded on her sliding glass door. She just ignored him the whole time. Now why didn't I think of that?

2 comments:

Michelle said...

Smart cookie Cassie. I wouldnt get involved either. Sounds like it could get messy. Some people have nothing better to do than just find nit picky little things to harass others with.

Cassie said...

He does not have a dog, he mentioned that our dogs are good, that he doesn't hear them barking. I'm pretty sure it's not about the dog, it's just another reason to be petty.