Jackie and Angel Cause Big Trouble

Yesterday I came home and found a letter in my mail box addressed to "Resident". Since I am a resident of where I live, I opened it.

What I found inside was a handwritten letter scrawled across a piece of spiral notebook paper. It said, "Please do something about your dogs barking. It is disturbing to your neighbors and unfair to the animals. It has been going on for sometime now, and you should be more respectful of those around you."

The perps.

I picked up the envelope the letter came in so that I could find the return address and go speak to the person. But, they didn't put a return address on the envelope, all they put was, "USPS, Ventura CA 93003"

I figured it was the next door neighbors. Every morning before I head off to work, I put the dogs in the backyard. My wife has been telling me that after I leave, the man next door does something every morning in his backyard, and the dogs go nuts, barking at him through the fence that separates our two properties. That fence is the only wooden fence in our backyard. There is a block wall between us, and every other one of our neighbors, but because the dogs can see through that wooden fence, anything that moves drives them bonkers. To try and prevent that, we went out and bought a cheap little picket fence and put it about fifteen feet back from the big fence. So far, it has worked out quite well. Because the dogs cannot get to the large fence to see the man, they don't bark as much. From what my wife has been telling me, they hear the man, bark once or twice, run over to the small picket fence, and then just sort of lose interest and go on about the business of being little dogs.

I decided to go over and speak with my neighbor about the letter because he might have sent it before we put up the little fence. He was in his garage when I walked up his drive, and so I introduced myself, and told him about the letter. His wife and daughter were their with him in the garage, and when I showed him the letter, he turned and said something in Spanish to his wife, and she and their daughter went into the house. I wondered at first what was going on, and thought maybe it was going to get ugly, but before long, they returned, and in his wife's hand was a leter, just like the one I had in my hand. The man told me they got the same letter, but that they didn't even own a dog until very recently. His daughter told me that they just bought a puppy, and that he doesn't even bark.

I felt a little embarrassed, but I didn't want to apologize because there was nothing to apologize for, so I just told him that I guess I had the wrong neighbor, and that I would need to find out where the letter came from. The man smiled, we shook hands, and I was on my way.

I guess the letter came from one of our neighbors that live behind us. I guess I should go talk with them, but it's a little freaky to send an anonymous letter with no return address. It kind of gives me a bad feeling because it tells me the person is passive aggressive, and perhaps could go so far as to take matters into their own hands. They obviously do not know which house has the dogs, though, since they sent the letter to at least two different addresses, but still, I worry about what might come next.

Why people just can't be up front with one another, I will never know. If they have a problem with the dogs, why wait so long to say something, and when you finally do say something, why anonymously?

Weirdos.

So there ya have it. Yet another exciting chapter in the lives of Jacqueline and Angel. Until next week, please go see more law abiding dogs the Carnival of the Dogs at Mickey's Musings, and don't forget the Friday Ark at The Modulator for even more upstanding citizens animals.

Posted by Jeff at June 8, 2007 7:49 AM