Showing posts with label dogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dogs. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Questions



Any of you who have visited in the last few days, know that my husband and I are engaged in a little feud with our next-door neighbors who have a dog kennel/training service.  Not that their dogs are a nuisance.  We are dog people.  Currently, we have seven of our own.  Yes, it makes for a crowded, crazy and chaotic apartment sometimes, but we have been working with the local Humane Society to find a rescue for three of the puppies who need forever homes.

Well, yesterday she took it a step further...and posted pictures into our back yard from a second-story window of her house.  Since she added comments showing her interpretation of the photos and believes they hold up her side of the story, I don't think she'll mind if I link to them here.  I apologize for over-snarkiness in my commentary, but neither will I take her abuse lying down.

But I said questions, didn't I?  Bad writer.  Sit.  Stay.

1.  In the first photo, there is a picture of the raised garden y'all put in last year.  I had been going to compliment you on it because I think it looks very nice.  Now ... well, it does still look nice, but I don't think I'll say anything.  Why did you feel the need to make the angle wide enough to show into my back yard and catch a view of my 10 year old daughter?

2.  The second photo is also purportedly of your garden, commenting on the fence.  It is a decent looking fence.  Two questions here.  Running a dog training service with approximately a dozen dogs boarded there at any given time, and given your penchant for absolute quiet and lack of distraction during training sessions, why did you not have a privacy fence up in the first place?  Why title the photo album "dogs still charging fence"?

3.  Quite frankly, the third picture puzzles me.   If you are close enough to my dogs to judge their motives in running by the fence when someone or some of your dogs are close to it, why can't you see that Brownie is a girl dog?

4.  Photo #4.  Yep, those are a couple of vicious 6-month old puppies charging at your fence intent on doing you and yours harm.  Oh wait, aren't they running parallel to the fence and about 15 feet away from it?  I do object to the comment made by one of your 'friends' which suggests electrifying the fence and injuring my dogs.  Don't all dogs have the same rights in their own yards?  Or, maybe your dogs are 'more equal' than ours, because you apparently own your home (it is on the market) and we are only 'apartment squatters' (those are your exact words).

5.  Photo #5.  Perhaps you need to get your eyes checked.  Yes, that is my husband through the trees.  His arms are not crossed.  They are by his sides.  Why did the picture include a view of my daughter's face?  What is missing from all of the pictures, are any dogs on either side of the fence...charging.

Would it make a difference to your report to know that when you took the above pictures, we had a visitor in the parking lot...who just happened to be associated with the local Humane Society, come to take a look at the pups to help us place them with a rescue?  Would it make a difference to your version of events if she knew the HS knew about the pictures...and the weapon?  Would it make a difference to your report if I said we had proof?

So many questions....so little time.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Problems




I'm still here, and still intend to complete my A to Z posts, but some problems have intruded on my time the past week or so and my posting has been sporadic at best.

Our neighbors run a dog boarding and training business.  There are at least a dozen dogs of all shapes and sizes over there at any given time.  Not a problem.  The  yards have a chain-link fence between them and while the dogs run up and bark at each other, there has been no canine violence on either side.

A couple of days ago, I went to the park with my daughter.  While we were gone, the humans were less well-behaved than the dogs.  While my husband and our 14 and 16-year-old sons were in the back yard with our dog and 6 puppies, the woman came out from next door with some sort of weapon and took three shots at the fence line!

They have thrown rocks through the fence at our dogs before.  I said if I ever saw it again, I'd be up over the fence and in their faces.  But to shoot at them?  And while my sons were in the back yard.  H-e-double-toothpicks NO!

They called the sheriff on us.  We called the sheriff on them.  In the meantime, my husband went to the fence line to talk with the man who lives there.  I went with him, hoping to be a calming influence on everyone concerned.  His claims included that our dogs rushed the fence, attempting to "get at" their poor small dogs and at the man on the riding lawn mower.  My husband brought up the weapon that the woman had, having pointed it at our fence.  He said, "No, she was shooting at our dogs."  First of all, we have the exchange recorded.  Second of all, what is she doing pointing a gun at dogs for whom she is supposed to be caring anyway???

I ask:  if there is someone walking by your home, or dogs in your neighbors' yards, or someone mowing the lawn, what does a dog do?  Bark and run closer?  Uh, probably, yeah.  Does it mean that they have evil intent when they run up to you?  Uh, no.  However, the woman with the dog business claims also to have a degree in psychology, so maybe that makes her an expert in doggie motives...I honestly don't know.

When the sheriff did arrive, he went to the neighbors' first.  When he came here, we learned that they had conveniently forgotten to bring up the gun.

The woman later decided to trash us on her Facebook pages, both personal and professional.  She called us 'apartment squatters', said the deputy was on their side and bemoaned that they 'had to pay $700" to put up a privacy fence.  (Wouldn't that be a good idea for a dog trainer anyway?)

Funny, because when the sheriff came over to our building, we did inform him of the gun, he saw how scared my older son was, and he told us he didn't blame us for being upset.  But there was no report generated, and he didn't even take names or anything.

We had been working with the local Humane Society to get three of the puppies to a rescue organization for some time now, but so are a lot of people...so it just takes however long it's going to take.  The HS rep came to our house today, as I had explained to her what had been happening, and said that she had heard both good and "not so good" things about the training business next door.

So for now, the problematic incident has gone no further.  Cross your fingers for us.

For something happier that took place over the weekend, come back later for my "R" post!

Friday, December 21, 2007

Bad Dog, Good Dog

A couple of nights ago, I went outside late to smoke. When I opened the back door, our cat SHOT in from the porch. After a few moments I heard this low growl, and thought maybe Mr. Snugglebutt (so named by my eldest son - I TOLD him the other neighborhood kitties would laugh) had had a gentleman's disagreement with the Dobie pup across the road. Anyway, after a while, the growling stopped.

The next night, there was a repeat of the smoking, streaking cat and low growl ... except it was nearly constant and lasted quite a bit longer. I started taking stock of what I could use as a defensive weapon should the pup run up on the porch.

My bedroom window is about 15-20 feet from the back porch. What significance is that? Well, I had apparently blamed the poor pup from across the road for something he hadn't done. The guilty, growling party was none other than my husband - snoring.

Bad, BAD doggie!

One of my co-workers asked the other day if we wanted a puppy - you know, for Christmas for the kids, she said. Apparently her 14 year old grand-daughter had come across a l'il cutie. Upon her requesting permission from grandma to bring the little'un home, my co-worker asked if it was a Chihuahua. She could only bring the puppy home if it was a Chihuahua. When the girl enquired the owner, he assured her it was a "full-blooded Chihuahua".

Upon return home, it was definitely NOT a full-blood, or in my co-worker's words..."I have more Chihuahua than that puppy!" I asked DH about it and he asked about getting a look and the pup. My co-worker took some pics of the pup with her digital camera ... even going so far as to pose the puppy. She is, of course, ADORABLE.

So, we are about to get a new family member.

Good, GOOD PUPPY!