We have reached another Friday, thank God, and although we are nearly to our safe haven of Saturday there is another work day to negotiate with all the obstacles and pitfalls that come with it.
I can’t say the week has been interesting although that big event in the US on Tuesday did have me enthralled and there have been a couple of other matters of note to fill in my time and play on my nerves and make me a little more on edge than I usually am. I guess all of these matters combined made the transition of the week relatively swift.
I’ve had to put up with a bit of nonsense, nuisance and annoyance this week the worst of which involved our poor inoffensive dogs.
Pepper and Turbo are two spritely, friendly hounds who have been members of Linda’s family before I met her and so are starting to get towards the end of their lives although I hasten to add they are both a couple of years from that final, sad procession to the vet just yet.
Pepper is a big black……thing. I’m not sure exactly what he is but he is as friendly a dog as one could imagine and rarely causes us any trouble. His little mate Turbo is a tan Staffie who has occasionally managed to perform Houdini like acts and escape from our yard when it has seemed cast iron prevention’s against such occurances are in place.
I have dog proofed the yard as well as I can and I lock them in the garage every night as there are dogs next door who stir them up and I don’t want to be getting up at two o’clock in the morning to stop our pair from snarling and barking at their tormentors..
I’ve tried to be a good neighbour in regards to the dogs. I make sure they do not bark and if they do I quieten them down as quickly as possible and as I said, lock them up at night and rarely do we hear a peep from them until we let them out in the morning. Even then they generally spend their days malingering on the back deck sunning themselves on days that suit such canine endeavors.
There are only short periods of the day, everyday of the week when we are absent so I believe they are kept well under control. I don’t believe they cause any more disturbance than any other pets around the neighbourhood.
This is in contrast to the dogs next door. There appears to be four of them and for a while after the neighbours moved in six to eight months ago their barking was incessant. Not just any barking either. There is a bigger dog who seems to be the ring leader and a smaller dog who whines and at times sounds like a murder victim in the throes of death. Not very pleasant for those who have to live near them.
To be fair they seem to have made every effort to quieten their mutts recently and the dogs have been much better lately than they were in the beginning when they first arrived. I think they are trying.
While the dogs still bark it is never for very long now and only occasionally is it at a very unfortunate time. One of these times occurred on Tuesday morning.
Around five o’clock they started. First, the bigger dog with his deeper, gruff bark then the little whiner sounding for all the world as if it’s throat had been cut. For ten minutes they carried on and as it was a warm evening and morning our window, which is close to their backyard was open and the whining mongrels took every opportunity to take a turn next the fence and holler and moan so as to wake me up. Linda of course was slumbering as if she had joined the procession the deceased and never heard a thing!
It was all over quickly and I was soon back to sleep. An unfortunate episode but not one to get upset about.
One of the things that has concerned me in regards to these dogs is that people in surrounding houses may hear them and wrongly assume they are ours. Thus my insistence that Pepper and Turbo be secured at night lest they cause their own trouble and bring the wrath of the neighbours down upon us.
My fears may have been realized
Perusing our letterbox for mail before I left for work on Tuesday I found two photocopied sheets, stapled together and left on their own without an envelope, of the ACT government’s “Nuisance Dog Regulations”, citing what constituted a nuisance dog and of course nuisance barking.
Obviously one of our “well to do” neighbours, not wishing to cause a scene had decided to give us a little hint that we need to control our dogs. Too bad they targeted the wrong house!
It really annoyed me. After trying hard to contain our dogs and protect the serenity of the street someone too cowardly to put their name to a sheet of paper or even to make a complaint, presumably because their name would be attached to it, has decided we needed to be chipped about our “nuisance” dogs using a complaint method “on the sly”.
The worst part about it is that there is really nothing I can do about it. Our dogs aren’t the problem and I can’t tell the person who left this sheet of paper in my letterbox such and give them my side of the story because I don’t know who they are!
I briefly considered canvassing the street either by letter or personally, stating my case and leaving them in no doubt at to my annoyance at the developing situation. As I cooled down I decided on another option. Do nothing. If I see our neighbour’s next door I will ask them if they too have been targeted by this phantom defender of public peace.
The next logical step is for someone to confront us personally or make a complaint which would see one of the local government Nazi’s visit us but that is a situation I can at least deal with and hopefully resolve. The scenario I hate is the current one in which I can do nothing or where someone feels they can take matters into their own hands and throw a bait over the fence. Likely, no. Possible, yes. The people in the street would know my feeling in the unlikely event of that happening.
So I will try to fix up the gate at the side of the house, the only place the dogs can see out of and barricade it so no one can walk down our driveway and see them in their home and potentially cause them harm. I shouldn’t even have to consider such things but the world and the people in it can be pathetic at times and my respect for the human race has never been great in the first place. I will take precautions.
To rub salt into the wound the barking dogs in question were out the front off the lead with their owner on Monday when Monique came home from walking our two and was attacked by the aforesaid dogs, biting Turbo near her eye. How ironic some nitwit would pick on us instead.
So that was merely one part of the week which turned sour and along with a few other scenarios in which people annoyed me socially and at work, got the blood pumping and at the very least made a dull week seem shorter than usual.
I am happy to have made it to the weekend and as the bad weather we experienced earlier in the week appears to be subsiding it looks like there will be plenty of sun to enjoy on the two days of rest coming to us.
I hope wherever you are, the lesser lights of the human race are leaving you in peace and you are able to enjoy the weekend. Take care.
I can’t say the week has been interesting although that big event in the US on Tuesday did have me enthralled and there have been a couple of other matters of note to fill in my time and play on my nerves and make me a little more on edge than I usually am. I guess all of these matters combined made the transition of the week relatively swift.
I’ve had to put up with a bit of nonsense, nuisance and annoyance this week the worst of which involved our poor inoffensive dogs.
Pepper and Turbo are two spritely, friendly hounds who have been members of Linda’s family before I met her and so are starting to get towards the end of their lives although I hasten to add they are both a couple of years from that final, sad procession to the vet just yet.
Pepper is a big black……thing. I’m not sure exactly what he is but he is as friendly a dog as one could imagine and rarely causes us any trouble. His little mate Turbo is a tan Staffie who has occasionally managed to perform Houdini like acts and escape from our yard when it has seemed cast iron prevention’s against such occurances are in place.
I have dog proofed the yard as well as I can and I lock them in the garage every night as there are dogs next door who stir them up and I don’t want to be getting up at two o’clock in the morning to stop our pair from snarling and barking at their tormentors..
I’ve tried to be a good neighbour in regards to the dogs. I make sure they do not bark and if they do I quieten them down as quickly as possible and as I said, lock them up at night and rarely do we hear a peep from them until we let them out in the morning. Even then they generally spend their days malingering on the back deck sunning themselves on days that suit such canine endeavors.
There are only short periods of the day, everyday of the week when we are absent so I believe they are kept well under control. I don’t believe they cause any more disturbance than any other pets around the neighbourhood.
This is in contrast to the dogs next door. There appears to be four of them and for a while after the neighbours moved in six to eight months ago their barking was incessant. Not just any barking either. There is a bigger dog who seems to be the ring leader and a smaller dog who whines and at times sounds like a murder victim in the throes of death. Not very pleasant for those who have to live near them.
To be fair they seem to have made every effort to quieten their mutts recently and the dogs have been much better lately than they were in the beginning when they first arrived. I think they are trying.
While the dogs still bark it is never for very long now and only occasionally is it at a very unfortunate time. One of these times occurred on Tuesday morning.
Around five o’clock they started. First, the bigger dog with his deeper, gruff bark then the little whiner sounding for all the world as if it’s throat had been cut. For ten minutes they carried on and as it was a warm evening and morning our window, which is close to their backyard was open and the whining mongrels took every opportunity to take a turn next the fence and holler and moan so as to wake me up. Linda of course was slumbering as if she had joined the procession the deceased and never heard a thing!
It was all over quickly and I was soon back to sleep. An unfortunate episode but not one to get upset about.
One of the things that has concerned me in regards to these dogs is that people in surrounding houses may hear them and wrongly assume they are ours. Thus my insistence that Pepper and Turbo be secured at night lest they cause their own trouble and bring the wrath of the neighbours down upon us.
My fears may have been realized
Perusing our letterbox for mail before I left for work on Tuesday I found two photocopied sheets, stapled together and left on their own without an envelope, of the ACT government’s “Nuisance Dog Regulations”, citing what constituted a nuisance dog and of course nuisance barking.
Obviously one of our “well to do” neighbours, not wishing to cause a scene had decided to give us a little hint that we need to control our dogs. Too bad they targeted the wrong house!
It really annoyed me. After trying hard to contain our dogs and protect the serenity of the street someone too cowardly to put their name to a sheet of paper or even to make a complaint, presumably because their name would be attached to it, has decided we needed to be chipped about our “nuisance” dogs using a complaint method “on the sly”.
The worst part about it is that there is really nothing I can do about it. Our dogs aren’t the problem and I can’t tell the person who left this sheet of paper in my letterbox such and give them my side of the story because I don’t know who they are!
I briefly considered canvassing the street either by letter or personally, stating my case and leaving them in no doubt at to my annoyance at the developing situation. As I cooled down I decided on another option. Do nothing. If I see our neighbour’s next door I will ask them if they too have been targeted by this phantom defender of public peace.
The next logical step is for someone to confront us personally or make a complaint which would see one of the local government Nazi’s visit us but that is a situation I can at least deal with and hopefully resolve. The scenario I hate is the current one in which I can do nothing or where someone feels they can take matters into their own hands and throw a bait over the fence. Likely, no. Possible, yes. The people in the street would know my feeling in the unlikely event of that happening.
So I will try to fix up the gate at the side of the house, the only place the dogs can see out of and barricade it so no one can walk down our driveway and see them in their home and potentially cause them harm. I shouldn’t even have to consider such things but the world and the people in it can be pathetic at times and my respect for the human race has never been great in the first place. I will take precautions.
To rub salt into the wound the barking dogs in question were out the front off the lead with their owner on Monday when Monique came home from walking our two and was attacked by the aforesaid dogs, biting Turbo near her eye. How ironic some nitwit would pick on us instead.
So that was merely one part of the week which turned sour and along with a few other scenarios in which people annoyed me socially and at work, got the blood pumping and at the very least made a dull week seem shorter than usual.
I am happy to have made it to the weekend and as the bad weather we experienced earlier in the week appears to be subsiding it looks like there will be plenty of sun to enjoy on the two days of rest coming to us.
I hope wherever you are, the lesser lights of the human race are leaving you in peace and you are able to enjoy the weekend. Take care.
Strange Notations From a Laborious Life 