My Neighbor

Remember this post? Two Dogs

Let me tell you about my experiences with my neighbor.

When we first moved in here it was clear our little front yard hadn't really been taken care of for awhile. The yard had creep out into the sidewalk about 8 inches, some into our own driveway and probably 6 inches into our neighbor's driveway. So we cleaned up it, she came out at one point and asked if we wanted to use her edger thing. We used it. (We had been using a shovel which was working fine, it had a flat edge but the edger made it faster.) She was nice about it and I said something about feeling badly that our yard was bleeding into her driveway, etc. She just smiled but didn't respond.

The only other thing up to this point I know about this woman is that she has 3 dogs in her backyard and they NEVER. SHUT. UP. She's a nurse and she's gone a LOT. And her dogs bark nearly constantly. It's a noise that I've blocked out but EVERY time someone come and stays here they get woken up in the morning by her dogs. Our bedrooms our on the front half of the house but the guest bedroom is on the back - closer to her dogs.

At this point we didn't even have a dog. But we listened to her dogs bark. EVERY day. We couldn't even go back there without them acting like they were going to attack us.

Not only that but she had a dog house up against our fence and the dog pictured in the post above would stand on the dog house and chew on our fence. She's made a mess of the top of it. And did we complain about it? No. Did I complain that my child couldn't play in the backyard without getting the crap scared out of her by the neighbor's dogs? No. I bought dog biscuits and started feeding them to her dogs. So now they bark when we get back there but only until I give them biscuits. Then we can have some peace.

I thought that was a nice way for me to handle it. Several people that heard those dogs suggested a BB Gun.... ;)

The next summer we decided to edge our yard so that the issue that happened before wouldn't have to be redone every year. We bought these cool bricks to do the front and some black edging for the sides. When it came time to do the edge of the yard Drew goes and knocks on the neighbor's door and asks if she could move her car so he can edge the driveway. She asks what he's doing and then insists that 6 inches of our yard on the right side belongs to her and we can't do that.

Now. First I'd like to point out why didn't she mention that she felt that way when we were cleaning it up the first summer, eh? Oh no. Because she's going to let us do WORK for her but not put up permanent edging.

We are in a townhouse right? So each front yard overlaps the next town house by a few inches. And she wants to lay CLAIM to those inches. Freaking bizarre. Drew was very nice about it apparently. She decided to lay rocks on her few inches BUT only half way down. So now what does it look like to people driving by? Ya. That we only half finished our yard. Lovely. Because who would drive by and assume our neighbor did that to our 6 inches of yard? Right.

Then we get a dog. Sam. He's a good dog. He barks sometimes but not bad. If I yell at him he stops. Sometimes all three of her dogs are barking away when she isn't home and Sam is just sitting and listening to them. Or he runs up and down the fence line. It'd kind of funny. And maybe he barks more when we aren't home I suppose but we're home a lot. She's not.

Anyway, so the dog pictured above. As Sam gets bigger she wants to play. So she came THROUGH our fence. Broke a board and came on over.

And honestly, I did NOT care! She eats all Sam's food. Drinks all his water. Plays with him. Whatever. I just pulled the food and water inside. No big deal.

It kept happening. This neighbor would come home and wait until her daughter came home and then send her daughter to come retrieve the dog. Once she even sent some woman how doesn't live there. WHAT is she afraid of??

We kept patching holes in the fence and this dog & Sam kept making them. So I write the woman a friendly letter. Seriously nice. I tell her that it seems silly that we keep fixing the fence. *I* think we should just leave a hole so that the dogs can play, etc.

And she never answered. She put a pallet up against her fence so it was clear she didn't agree. But would an answer have been too much to ask?!? I gave her phone number, email, name, everything.

The funny thing was it gave her dog an idea. She used the pallet to go over the fence. Well, at least she stopped making holes in the fence! HAHA Oh. She also digs holes when she's back there. Sam has never dug holes. She taught him how. Now he does it too. It's SO frustrating.

So apparently the dog now figures out she can just LEAP the 6 ft fence. She really really wants to play with Sam. Again, I don't care if she does but my "this is my 6 inches of yard" neighbor clearly cares and now that dog is tied up all day long. The other two dogs run free but the leaping dog is tied up in the backyard so she can't fence jump.

Oh the cutest thing - when the dog wants to go back? She jumps and Sam pushes her from underneath to help her back over. (on our side the fence is smooth so it's a harder jump)

And now our new issue.

A couple weeks ago she backed out of her driveway and hit Drew's car that was parked on the street. She didn't hurt Drew's car but she scratched hers up. She called the police and the cop said ya he's in your space but ya you had plenty of room to get out. No report filed whatever. She should look when she backs up.

This morning. At 7:20. We are all still SOUND asleep. And there is the horrendous banging on our front door that makes Drew & I both fly out of bed. And scared my poor Leah half to death. And we get to the door. No one is there. Okay then.

We get back in bed. We've all 3 started to drift back off to sleep. Even Leah thankfully. 7:48. BANG BANG BANG on the door. I wrap a blanket around myself and hurry to the door.

It. is. a. COP.

He starts telling me that my neighbor called the police because she feels like Drew's car is across her property line. I rolled my eyes and the cop says, "have you talked to her about this before?" and I said "Only when she hit my husband's car backing out of her driveway." And he says that he sees what she's say but that clearly has plenty of room to get out of her driveway. Even right that second there were tracks in the snow and she hadn't even had to curve to back out. She just backed straight out. Whatever. And he says to me...

"Maybe you could just be careful about it so she stops bothering us?"

Haha.

Okay officer.

Meanwhile it's 10 degrees and you know this cop has better things to be doing with his time then reporting our neighbor's complaints to us!!
****

Now, are you kidding me? Did that just happen??

Do I have the most ridiculous neighbor ever? Seriously?

We have done NOTHING to this woman. NOTHING.

Do we complain about her dogs? no. Could we? of course! Do we complain that her dog eats our fence? no.

I'd kind of like to print this post and stick it in her door.

Because really I wonder what in the world she must be thinking??? I'm so insanely frustrated. And tired. I could still be SLEEPING.

Crappy neighbor.

Oh. And she doesn't know it but she's friends with my stepsister. I've never told her that. I've heard from other people that she's not a nice lady. She's a nurse though and so is my stepsister. One woman told me "I never could figure out what she sees in her." about my stepsister.

Why do I have to live next to this woman? The people on the other side are nice.

And really - I'm nice people. I'm friendly. But she's a crazy rude lady.

Only one time have I ever knocked on their door. She wasn't home just her daughter. And I had to knock for a LONG time. She had her music up so loud Leah couldn't take a nap. That's it. And I was totally nice about it!

UGH.

Can't they move away???

Because is it wrong that I only want to move so I don't have to live anywhere near this lady????

Who acts like that?!!?

Drew says he's going to go talk to her. He doesn't want me to do it.

Why do you think? ;)

Oh. And we've lived her 18 months. And NOW she's complaining not ever once before she hit the car did she complain.

Oh I just want to SCREAM.

And I'm tired.