Most of you know this book from Dr. Seuss. I was read it MANY times when I was little and read it myself MANY times. Then I read it MANY times to my kids.
But this post isn’t about Dr. Seuss books. I may do one later.
I love animals. Furry kinds or party. I’ve had a cat since I can remember. I was the one that would bring the injured bird home and try to foster it in a vintage bird cage my mom had since the 50′s only to have the poor thing die. Funeral services were held, tears shed but I would move on. Until the next poor soul was found.
I would find garter snakes and put them in my beach coat pocket at our lake house and carry them around. “Can I keep him George, can I? Can I? Oh boy oh boy”. My poor parents. They were just waiting for the day I’d bring home a bear or injured possum.
My mom used to feed the racoons. Every night there was Esther and her babies and mom would give her the dinner scraps from that night. It was great watching them eat corn on the cob. She also liked to feed the deer. Dad was patient. He would diligently put deer food out every other day or so. And about a dozen would trod through the snow and eat. Mom loved it. These were the days you could do that and not worry about encouraging the wildlife into your yard for fear of them moving in and mauling you.
As much as I would love to have animals, I don’t have the acreage or room. The most I’ve had is 4 cats. I’m down to one now and 4 chickens. They stay outside. They don’t make much noise. I had a dog for a week once. I was keeping it for someone who couldn’t have it until another owner was found. Tigger, my cat, rarely goes outside anymore since he’s going on 9 years. I’ve always done my best to control my pets by making sure they weren’t digging in gardens to poop or clawing trees (which they never did).
My neighbors on my one side have a small Scottie dog named Webster. Barks occasionally, but only when it wants to go in after being let out to pee. Doesn’t bark at me when it’s outside with his owner while he rakes the yard. They, too, control the dog if it seems to be straying. It has occasionally sneaked out under their fence, but only when the daughter’s visiting and has brought her Scottie named Allie (not a name I would choose). Little instigator. It’s kind of amusing actually.
Now, on the OTHER side of me are newer neighbors. Not new to the area, he was brought up about a mile down the road where his mother still lives and runs their sanitation business. So he has that smugness of “I grew up here so don’t tell me what to do”. He moved in with an elderly dog who died about 3 months later. We knew another one would probably be acquired.
We were wrong.
They acquired two.
Puppies. One black lab, one stupid white lab mix or something.
Because Nicole wanted a new dog and the owner just couldn’t decide on which one to get. So he answered BOTH ads in the paper.
He did fence in a portion of the back yard. The white lab would get out occasionally (I think Nicole would let it out just to watch the bedlam that ensued as well as the attention she would get -negative attention-but attention). I was recruited a couple times to help round up this varmit. He thought it a game and would let you get within 3 feet of him and then he’d take off, find some deer, run through some neighborhood yards and be gone. Eventually, he would come home.
One local had had enough, threatened to shoot “the dame thing” if it came into his yard and ran through his garden again. He was drunk. And it is legal to shoot a dog if it’s in your yard. Welcome to Pennsylvania.
Oh, did I mention they like to bark?
They’ll bark at EVERYTHING! Name it, they’ll bark at it.
Said neighbor has purchased one of the “No Bark” mechanisms and mounted it on one of the fence posts. It worked for about 3 days. And it only works if it’s “ON”.
Nicole turns it off. I swear this is the evil spawn child of Satan. She will be a handful when she turns 12. She’s 10.
Why said neighbor doesn’t tell evil spawn child to leave it on or beat the crap out of her is beyond me. She wants attention? I’ll give her attention!
When said neighbor leaves for work in the morning at 4am (never ceases to let us know what time he goes to work-like he’s a real man or something) he let’s the dogs out! They will bark at the sun rising or something. THEN….SHE goes to work, leaving them outside. If they don’t, they destroy the house (can you say “CAGE”?). So it’s “Free reign baby!! Whoo Hoooo…….let’s have a bark party” and they won’t shut up. You can’t go outside without being barked at. You can’t get into or out of your car without being barked at. Said neighbor has asked us if the dogs barking bothers us and we’ve said yes, but he does nothing about it.
They are no longer puppies. They’re about a year old now.
Well, my husband let him know today that it really is bothering us. He yelled at the dog, rattled the fence, yelled at the neighbor, they waved back and I haven’t heard the dogs since. You mean to tell me they can’t hear those dogs barking? I know it’s got to be one reason why the people on the other side of them are moving. It’s going to be an interesting weekend.
Why don’t people have consideration and take responsibility or control of their animals?
