The Periphery of the Mind

For some time now the Professor and I have had an issue with the neighbor next to us. Not the ones who parked their vehicle on our property or made an eyesore of their yard, the -other- neighbor. The one with the vicious dog.

To be honest, I'm not sure it's all that vicious. Sure it barks a lot. Sometimes for three hours straight in the middle of the night. But I think if it was in a different environment, with an owner who liked to spend time with it, it could be a good dog. But it isn't. Every time I walk along the side of my house that shares a fence with the neighbor, the dog goes nuts. Twice before it'd broken either the lock or the boards holding the lock trying to get at me. The Professor is scared to use that gate, and I can't blame her. I'd previously complained to the neighbors and they'd put some firewood or twine to try and hold the gate shut until they could do a better half-assed fix. Seriously, when the board is broken in half by the dog you don't try and nail it back together; it's not structurally sound. And if it breaks the lock because the lock is too weak and not strongly secured to the (broken) board, you don't use that lock again. And whatever half-assed fix you use to do a piss-poor job in securing your gate, you don't make it so your neighbors can't use -their- gate.

But every time the dog broke it's lock or fence, it didn't really do anything. It just growled and barked and stayed in its yard. I politely complained that their dog seemed kind of vicious and wasn't properly secured. I was told at one point that the dog would be going away, and I let it slide. I continued to let it slide when the dog -didn't- go away. Until last night.

When it started jumped and barking and growling at a neighbor in his own yard enough to drive the neighbor inside, I called animal control. Who was closed. But the automated message said to call the cops. So I did. And I waited. And I waited. Eventually one of the neighbor's came home (the owner's daughter?), got the dogs and took them inside. As she was going inside trying to get the dogs under control (the neighbor also has two small dogs that got loose) I flat out told her "the dog brock the lock on your fence, charged the neighbor, and I called the cops".

The neighbor took the dog inside and after a while she left. I called the cops and told them the dog had been secured, and they said they'd call off the officer. And of course, just as the Professor and I were leaving, a cop pulled up. We waited some more, since the cop was handling another call, and explained the situation. A very nice cop, but pretty damn slow. Then again, it wasn't an emergency. Funny enough, the whole time the cop was there, the dog could be heard barking from inside the house.

Anyway, the cop said "call Animal Control Monday" since they couldn't do much with a secured animal. Which is what I intend to do.

As a final note, this morning Stormy got loose from her dog run. After I got her back inside I took Caden for a walk as a reward for him not getting out too. As we went out our gate and past the still broken neighbor's gate, I had to move the pile of firewood securing the neighbor's gate and keeping mine closed. In the process the neighbor's dog saw me and flipped out; biting Caden's leash when I accidentally got it in their gate.

By the time we got back though, the dog was gone. Not sure if it'll be back or not.

Labels: NWA