Ok, long day and lots of talks later. My dad after talking to the police on the phone decided filing a formal complaint with them was a potentially dangerous thing to do. Apparently the county animal services division conducts an investigation and if they deem it necessary they can take the dog and evaluate it or they can quaratine the animal. My dad thinks that will possibly cause them to retaliate. He kept saying "You have to remember, Sadie bit him too". She didn't really, but she picked him up in her mouth so I guess you could call that biting. So we filed a complaint with the HOA. I don't know if that was the right way to go. My dad told me I need to sleep on it before I file a formal complaint with the police because once I do I "set a ball in motion that I won't be able to stop". I'm just afraid that if I do anything now, it will just look like I'm being vindictive. I guess I see his point. If Sadie hadn't physically touched him I wouldn't hesitate, but the idea of them filing a counter claim and potentially having Sadie quarantined or taken for observation freaks me out. I don't know, the whole thing is crazy. We talked in circles all night. The president of the HOA is encouraging the idea of working it out privately. She's such a PITA but I did feel bad that her whole Sunday afternoon got eaten up with this. I'm more than willing to work it out but that dog needs to be on a leash - end of story. If he had been on a leash, none of this would have happened.
And the property issue is 100 shades of gray because even though it happened right behind my back porch, the fine print on the deed states that anything beyond the front or back door is considered commonly owned property and is to be managed as the HOA sees fit. Which knocks that argument out of there. However, my neighbors girlfriend pointed out that if the HOA is managing the property, then they also need to be strictly enforcing the leash law and if they're not doing that (which clearly they are not) then they may be liable should something like this happen.
I did take pictures of Maggie's neck and Sadie's face. The one of Sadie came out badly though, you can barely see it, but I have them both in case I need them. The thing that bothers me most is that if this woman had handled the situation differently none of this would have happened. I'm not confrontationa l at all, I don't like fighting especially with people I have to live next to. If she had just made an effort to stop the dog from attacking my cat or been apologetic about what happened instead of trying to make it my fault and Sadie's fault, I would have talked to her about using a leash but it would have ended there unless I saw him leashless again. The fact that she went nuts on us when we did nothing wrong and this is the second time we've had an issue with their offleash dog, makes me mad.
So I think the plan at this point is to wait and see what move, if any, the HOA takes. And I'll be taking the camera every walk in case he's off leash again. My neighbors girlfriend said I should send the vet bill to her via certified mail instead of handing it to her. It's really just an exam and they both got sent home on a couple days worth of antibiotics to prevent infection. My neighbors girlfriend said if she's smart she'll just pay it and if not we'll deal with that when it happens. She's helping me write the letter to include with the bill. I don't know if I'm doing the right things here, my gut tells me to make a complaint with the police, but now my dad totally freaked me out about it. Hopefully we can just resolve it. If she agrees to pay the vet bill and keep her dog on leash, I'll be more than happy to drop it. But if I ever catch him off leash again, that's it.
I don't know, it's so late and I'm not going to get any sleep because I keep second guessing everything I did today. I hope it all just goes away. Maybe I'll call the county animal services division tomorrow and try to just talk to someone there and see what all the options are and what they recommend? My head is spinning right now. Thanks for your support everyone, I'll keep you posted.
