The dog next door

My blog, my chance to beef.

The house behind ours is a rental property, and it's had several tenants in the two years we've lived here. The current batch have a dog. Generally, this wouldn't bother me -- I don't like dogs much, but if they don't bother me, it's all good. And this dog is just a normal dog who does normal dog things. He doesn't seem unfriendly or excessively loud. It's just that I don't want him in my yard.

The problem is mainly the fault of the tenants and the landlord -- the landlord for letting his side of the fence fall into such bad repair, the tenants for not controlling their dog. One board on the fence has been rotted out about halfway down for a few months, and the dog likes to poke his nose through and look around. No problem there; he's just curious, and the girls like to see him. However, a week ago I watched in amazement as the dog pulled off the board next to that one, piece by piece, and dashed into my yard. Since then he's left messes in my yard (that's why I don't like dogs and don't have one!), terrorized my indoor cat in the middle of the night by coming up to the window and barking at him, and has scared my daughters, not to mention just plain infuriating me.

A day ago someone on the other side tried to fix things by screwing up a piece of broken board diagonally over the bottom of the gap. No dice; the dog pulled it off and almost gave me a heart attack in the middle of the night by fighting with my cat through the window. The board has been put back up, but it's an ugly and ineffective place holder. I want the fence fixed. I spent this morning shoveling up dog stuff and tossing it through the fence back into their yard, and I find that disgusting. I'm six months pregnant and not as agile with a shovel as I once was.

Go talk to the neighbors! someone will advise. They're only home at odd hours, and being as Darwin in is California visiting his family, I don't feel like trekking over to speak to inconsiderate strangers with two tiny girls in tow. I've written to the homeowner's association (they ought to be good for something -- I pay them once a year and never see any benefit from it) and am waiting a response. In the meantime, if I see the dog in the yard again, I'm considering either calling animal control or loading the clip into Darwin's gun and finding out how my aim is...