Three new families have moved into my neighborhood during the last month. All have pets. (Woohoo! More pet people!)
However, two of the households have outdoor pets. Aimee’s not the only one who takes exception to her neighbors from time to time. Occasionally, so do I.
Most recently Aimee had to contend with neighbors not disposing of their trash (namely chicken bones) in the proper place. Frustrating. I can feel her pain. One of our new neighbors’ animals is leaving some litter behind I’d rather he dispose of elsewhere, too….
The Outdoor Cat
Apparently he’s made friends with his next door neighbors, who happen to be Wayne and I’s good friends. He’s on their front stoop whenever possible (mostly taunting their dog, Otis), but he’s pretty friendly and lets the kids pet him when they’re out.
But…
Shortly after he moved in there was a noticeable increase in bird carcasses on the street. Bad. More smelly stuff for Murph to try and roll in.
Even worse, there are now more cat poo piles for Murph to search out and try to feast on. Lovely.
At least he doesn’t sit on our stoop and taunt Murph –or, worse, the cats. What an uproar that’d cause!
The Outdoor Dog
Thankfully this new neighbor lives several blocks down the road from us. They moved in last week, but there won’t be any welcome calls from any of their immediate neighbors if they don’t make their dog stop barking.
I hadn’t passed by that house in a few days. Murph likes to tug me up this big hill and over to the subdivision next door, which is before the new dog’s street.
But I’d already heard about the dog barking from other neighbors. Friday I heard a bark I didn’t recognize. (Keep in mind I was two blocks away.) Mostly it’s quiet around here, even with a dog occupying almost every house. But when there is barking, I pretty much know whose bark belongs to who. It took me a little while to remember, but then it dawned on me: “That must be the new neighbor, the barker. Yikes. Annoying. I can see why everyone’s mad.”
Then over the weekend we went the old route (i.e. past the new neighbor’s house) and saw the German Shepherd responsible for all the racket. Yikes. He never shuts up and he just gets worse when he sees another dog passing by.
Hopefully he’ll get used to the activity around here. Otherwise those people are going to have to put up a better fence…one that he not only can’t see through but can’t hear or smell through either. Maybe not seeing all the other dogs will help him quiet down.
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