The people over at animal control know two of my neighbors by name and they know my address by heart. In other words, "Bev" down the street and "Carla" next door, call Knox County Animal control a lot and which results in a visit from the nice folks at animal control. The officers really are always nice, by the way. At any rate, today I get a visit from Knox County AC. To be honest, I was a bit surprised because the dog has been in the house a lot because of the cold and rain. Well, as it turns out a woman who lives in our neighborhood was walking to work and couldn't get by our "huge vicious" black dog and her daughter had to come and take her the rest of the way to work. I have seen this lady walk down our street on her way to work and she is the most honest to goodness fearful lady I have ever come across EVER. She is just down right wierd, too. She sometimes pushes an umbrella stroller with stuff in it. No kids - just stuff. Well, one day a few weeks ago she was walking to work pushing her stroller. I was out front and Heidi was out with me ON OUR PROPERTY just hanging around. When all of a sudden she sensed fear and out of the corner of my eye I saw "Dog Lady" (that is our name for her). By the time I realized what was happening, Heidi started barking and running toward her which I am sure gave this poor woman a heart attack and she quickly turned her stroller and darted up the driveway of the home she was in front of. I called to Heidi and she immediately obeyed my command and came back to me and we went inside. By the way, the dog never set a paw off our property. After a few minutes, Dog Lady ever so cautiously walked down the sidewalk in front of our home giving us the evil eye. What is funny is that Eric, Amy and I were all standing at the window watching her right back.
So today the animal control guy mentions a complaint that they have received from someone who had to be "picked up to get to work" because of a large vicious dog. I have a feeling that Dog Lady ratted on us.
Then later on about 2 this afternoon I didn't hear a knock or anything, but I did hear Heidi bark like crazy and I knew someone was at the door. It was "Carla". Heart palpitations set in and I decided to keep holding Baby Paul because she would throw a punch to a motherly woman holding a baby. So I open the door and see her wearing one shoe and holding the other one.
It had poop on it.
She was walking from her door to her car through her front yard and stepped in Heidi poop. I do not know why, but Heidi poops in her yard. Probably because she knows that "Carla" is not a very nice person. Anypoop, it was quite a sight to see this woman who is really odd in the first place standing on my front stoop holding her shoe with poop on it. It wasn't a lot of poop, but still it was enough. Well, thankfully no f-bombs came out of her mouth and she kept her cool. But it was a VERY uncomfortable exchange for me to go through and I felt and still feel awful. Meanwhile, Amy came out to see who was at our door and she was wearing just a shirt. That reminds me, earlier in the day when the AC guy came by she also came out to see him and she was wearing just pants.
O boy is this blog entry ever long. I am just so consumed by this. Yes, I am one of those people who lets their dog hang around the unfenced yard unleashed. She is NOT vicious and for the most part she just sits right outside my front door giving me a look of longing to be on the inside. So she wanders over to the neighbors yard and poops... so what! Just kidding. I know that is more than frustrating and totally inappropriate. This whole experience makes me want to live in the country.
The bottom line is that I will NEVER allow Heidi to go in that lady's yard again and when I am out in the front yard, I will make sure that Dog Lady is no where in sight before allowing Heidi to roam unleashed. And if I move in next door to you and neither of us have fences, I will be a responsible dog owner and keep her on my property and if she does poop, I will make sure to clean up after her.
