Ok, I need to vent. I hate my neighbors. Tell me if I'm over-reacting. I am overtired and cranky, but I think my concerns are legit.
Sadie and I live in a townhouse that is part of a mini community of 35 houses. We sort of all share a "yard" and a trail and a small park. The yard isn't fenced but there's a really nice trail to walk your dog. Problem is, all my neighbors who have dogs are IDIOTS. Sadie got bitten yesterday by one neighbors chi mix. I love those little guys (please don't be offended Smudge
), but this one is the devil and his owner doesn't control him. This was not a playbite, Sadie was fine thankfully, but he nipped her right on the nose and was snarling his head off. And the guy just laughed like it wasn't a big deal that his psycho OFFLEASH dog bit my dog who was behaving herself on leash because Sadie is so big. GRRRRR! I don't want my sweet little girl to freak out about little dogs now because she had a bad experience with this one!
THEN, another neighbor has a beautiful husky, Sadie loves him and they play all the time. The problem is, his owner doesn't want to walk him like the rest of us so she ties him to her porch all the time. I don't necessarily have a problem with people who have outside dogs, but you sort of need your own yard for that. All I can picture is him tripping the wrong way down those stairs and strangling himself or getting his legs twisted up in the rope. This morning when I took Sadie out, he'd gotten the tie out twisted and wrapped around the stairs such that he couldn't move at all and was basically sitting in his own "potty" because he couldn't go anywhere. Poor little guy. So we get him untangled and he's going nuts like "Oh My God - someone paying attention to me!!!" Sadie's foot gets caught in his tie out somehow and she starts freaking out, which makes him freak out more and that makes her freak out more and so on and so forth. Sadie was fine when I finally got them untangled but I was fuming. I know it's my own fault for going over there, but I couldn't just leave him all tangled up! He couldn't move! So finally hearing all the commotion his owner pokes her head out the door. I'm not one to say anything in situations like this so I just let her know that the tie out had gotten tangled and he was stuck. She seemed unconcerned. THEN she starts talking to me about how Sadie and her dog should have puppies. I said no, quite firmly and she starts asking me why I wouldn't want my dog to have puppies and how she definitely plans on letting her dog breed. I tried to explain about health checks and all of that but it was just going right over her head. At this point, I decided I needed to walk away because I wasn't getting anywhere and I was rapidly approaching the point where I was going to start punching her in the face repeatedly.
MAybe I'm over reacting? I just think it stinks that I do the right, responsible thing for my dog and my neighbors think they don't need to do the same things. Sadie is the only dog in our area that is ALWAYS on leash. I am the only one who ever cleans up after my dog. She's never EVER outside unsupervised. I don't understand why these people think it's ok to not follow rules. And what really makes me angry is that our Homeowners Association gave me a hard time about having Sadie because she's so big, but yet they say nothing about these other dogs behaving badly and their owners being big stupid idiots. Am I over reacting?
I think it's time to move