So, my neighbors, who live across the street, their adult sons who don’t actually live with them, but sometimes sleep in their garage, have been showing up this past week with an extra large Uhaul truck. They leave with the truck early in the morning, are gone all day, and return some time late in the afternoon. Today, they decided to park their huge truck directly across the street from my front door. Rosee, who barks at all loud noises and unknown vehicles on her street, started barking. The son driving the vehicle literally leaned out of his open car window as he was parking the truck and yelled and cussed at my dog because she was barking. Imagine, a grown man yelling and cussing at my dog who is in her own house. This guy was yelling so loud that even though I was working in my living room, with headphones on and my music turned up so loud that I couldn’t even hear my own television, I could hear him. At first I thought that someone was outside fighting, what with all of the cuss words being thrown around. So, I turned off my music and went to my front door where I see this crazy man practically threatening my dog. Of course, I go outside and stand on my porch and ask him “Why are you yelling at my dog?” This just redirects his attention to me and he starts yelling and cussing at me. I tell him she’s a dog in her own house and she can do whatever she wants, so stop yelling at my dog. Then he gets really crazy and starts ranting about how he didn’t know dogs had feelings, and didn’t I know that dogs can only see in black and white, and so on. I rolled my eyes at him and went back inside.
I ended up telling my mom about what happened and she went across the street to talk to the actual owners of the house, you know the parents. Of course, they’re not home or they’re busy. (They always are. . . ) So, my mom talks to the other son that had been with the one that was yelling at Rosee and me. This guy was incredible! He denied everything, said that I was the liar, and that I was the one who started the argument and “confronted” them. I said of course I confronted them, the guy was cussing at my house and dog and threatening us!
My mom came back home and as fuming as I was at the entire situation, a nice walk with Rosee, Simon, and the family helped me to calm down. (The milkshake my mom bought me didn’t hurt either.) By the end of the night the Uhaul truck had moved so that it wasn’t parked directly across from my house, and I haven’t heard a peep out of the neighbors since.
Morale of my long rant: Don’t yell at dogs in their own houses . . . because they are dogs in their own houses.
Also, don’t be afraid to stand up for your dog. This kind of seems to be a running theme throughout our blog here at Play Hard, Bark Often. Being Rosee and Simon’s owners have certainly forced us here to confront people who don’t understand that not all dogs are perfectly behaved and quiet little angels, and that’s okay as long as we, as their owners, are constantly working with them to be better. Being a dog owner is work, though rewarding work. Rosee is seven years old and we still have to work on her manners every time we go on a walk. Simon, now at the wise old age of eight, still gets too excited anytime we put on our walking shoes and starts to hump his bed – a work in progress certainly.
Truth is, I don’t need my dogs to be perfect. I just need them to be happy (and healthy, but that’s a whole other blog post just waiting to be written).
So take your perfect and imperfect dogs (or whatever animal you have!) and give them a cuddle from us here at Play Hard, Bark Often.
Sending you happy and healthy thoughts, and I hope your neighbors are nicer than mine!
(And next time I post, it’ll be something much happier. . .)
Play Hard, Bark Often 