NEIGHBORS FROM HELL!

Do you have friendly neighbors or do you have neighbors that are giving you a glimpse of what hell looks like? When you own dogs, and especially if you own more than a few, you better pray that you live next to great neighbors that tolerate your dogs and their barking. If you don’t, all hell can break out.

I guess it really depends upon where you live. If you live in the country and you have several acres of land, most of the time you never even know who your neighbor is. Most of the time if you’re lucky, you won’t have any problems with neighbors at all. But if you live in a residential neighborhood this is when your neighbors from hell can show their ugly faces.

I’ve lived in both the country and residential neighborhoods while owing my German Shepherds. Living in the country was by far the better place to raise my dogs. Although I did have a neighbor call me one time that my dogs were barking too much when I was gone for several hours. That’s when I decided when I was going to be away for any length of time, the dogs got put away until I returned. This is the policy that I still chose to use when I’m not going to be home. None of my dogs are left outside when I’m away from home.

When we got my very first German Shepherd, we lived in an apartment for a year. She was a happy go lucky kind of dog that loved going everywhere with us. She had a marvelous disposition and loved everyone that she met. We had a neighbor that lived in the apartment above us. She’d pat our dog on the head when she would see her but made the comment, “Oh that’s one of those police dogs. I would never trust her.” No matter how friendly my dog was, this woman would always have something bad to say about “those police dogs!” She was the most annoying and obnoxious person you could have the misfortune to run into. How annoying was she? Well she would do her vacuum cleaning every night after 10 o’clock……..back and forth it would go across the floor for what seemed like hours. Then her teenage son would add to the “musical serenade” by sharing with us his latest hard rock selection of the week. If we complained to her, she’d sarcastically say, “Oh what’s the matter your dog don’t like rock and roll music?” We only lived there for a year.

We moved to a residential area and bought our first show dog. So now we had the two dogs. We had a garage that we built indoor/outdoor runs from. They had a doggie door to go in and out of the garage as they pleased. However at night, I’d lock the doggie door so they wouldn’t be barking into the wee hours of the morning. Well I had this neighbor that had two small flat coated wire haired terriers. Can I tell you that they had the yappiest of mouths on them that you ever did hear? The husband was a nice sort of a guy. He’d exchange a few pleasantries with us across the fence. We had chain link fence enclosing our whole back yard as well as the two dog runs. The wife on the other hand, was Mrs. Nosy. She asked us “Why are you doing this and why are you doing that?” We put up privacy shields in the fence to try to block her spying eyes. I remember one morning my telephone rang. I picked it up and it was my neighbor cooing in to the phone, “Barbara dear, I noticed that your bedroom shades were down and I was just checking in on you.” Wasn’t she sweet and considerate? NOT!

When we moved to Georgia, we again lived in a residential area. The two dogs that I owned then are the ones that you see pictured at the top of the blog. They both had magnificent temperaments and many times they’d be with us on the front lawn loose. The children from the neighborhood would come over and say hello to them, so people didn’t have a problem with our dogs here. HOWEVER, my neighbor on the one side of my yard had a Bassett Hound. He was a sweet natured dog, but did you ever hear them bark and howl? Oh my God, they sound awful.

Well quite frankly I used to feel very sorry for this Basset Hound. This poor dog would be left outside (not tied up though) in all kinds of weather. He’d sit on the back deck howling and begging them to let him in, but most of the time it fell on deaf ears. I wouldn’t have minded being deaf myself at those times. Once in awhile they would open the door and let him in. The worse of times was when they left the dog out past 10’oclock at night. They were abusive to this dog for letting him sit outside all day and night howling and abusive to their neighbors that had to listen to his awful annoying howling and barking.

Or how about the time that I complained to my neighbor that used to let her dog run loose all over the neighborhood and “deposit” his “stuff” on my nice freshly mowed lawn? You know what her answer to me was? “You’re an animal lover, deal with it!” We only lived there a year also before we moved to the country.

Those few instances that I shared with you about some of my neighbors are mild compared to other people’s stories about the “Neighbors from Hell.” I’ve been told or read about stories where neighbors have poisoned other people’s dogs. Most of the time by the time the owner of the dog got to him, he was already dead. I’ve heard of dogs being killed in their own kennel runs. Sometimes people will throw something over the fence to the dog so he’ll eat it. It always amazes me about some people’s degrees of nastiness.

Here are a few that I found on the internet about “Neighbors from Hell.” I tell you some had me laughing out loud although I wouldn’t be laughing if I lived by them!

It seems that one neighbor had no respect for his neighbors when they were asked to please keep their barking dogs in late at night. But nope they let their dogs bark 24 hours a day. Well these were smaller dogs and if you ever heard them, you know how very annoying their barks can be. So it seems the children of the family took matter into their own hands. They wrapped sleeping pills in a treat and threw it over the fence to the dogs. The dogs became very drowsy and were stumbling when they tried to walk. I guess their owners took notice and the yapping dogs were in bed at a reasonable time from then on in.

Another neighbor did the same thing. It seems he feels that he had good reasons for doing so. From what he says, his neighbor is certifiable! He says that she cleans the snow and ice off of her car with a hula hoe. (I never heard of that before). He says it’s one of those garden tools that are on a long wooden handle with the metal blade that goes back and forth. Apparently it’s used to dig up weeds. Well when this huge dog at another neighbor’s house hears it, all he did was bark, howl and woof incessantly. After this went on for three days, it seems this neighbor lost all control. He says in his own words that “”Over the counter sleep aids are of a great value in this type of case. After 45 minutes the dog started making sounds like some drunken cow.” He says he hasn’t heard from the dog in a year and that he found out that the dog now lives elsewhere!

Another “friendly” neighbor didn’t like people’s dogs period. It didn’t matter if they were well behaved and didn’t bark or make a lot of noise. They were just an animal hater. Well the owners made sure that the dogs were never outside alone and that they were in the house at night. Well it seems these neighbors didn’t have the same degree of good manners as their neighbor’s dogs. The husband and wife would sit on the back porch all night into the wee hours of the morning, laughing, smoking and drinking. It just so happened to be on the side of the house where their neighbor’s bedroom was. So besides listening to them carry on all night, they had to breathe in the smoke of their cigarettes as well. Talk about getting second hand smoke. Oh yeah, and to add insult to insult, they even did the “wild thing” on the picnic table for their neighbors viewing pleasure! Is this what they mean by "Love thy neighbor?"

I know someone in the breed (no don’t write me and ask me who it is) that lived on several acres of land. She told me one time that a neighbor called her complaining about her dogs barking too much. Well she and her husband worked full time out of the home. She didn’t know what to do about this because the neighbor was becoming more and more threatening on the phone with her. Well her husband made “THE CALL” to “SOMEONE who had connections.” This “SOMEONE” called the annoying neighbor and told them “You will not bother these people anymore.” My friend never heard from them again! See it pays to have someone that has “CONNECTIONS.”

So there you have it. Some neighbors are great and many become friends. They share barbecues with one another, kids birthdays and heck some even go on vacation with one another. But for every neighbor that is like this, there are those few that came up from the bowels of hell! I can’t wait to hear some of your stories about your “Neighbors from Hell!”


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My rating: Living in the country with dogs: (4), living in residential areas with dogs: (1 - 4)