Concerned Neighbor

We got an anonomous letter from 'a concerned neighbor' last week on Friday. It was a newspaper clipping about dogs. The article talked about how there is no such thing as 'outdoor dogs' in Arizona, cause it is too dang hot. It went on about how if your dog barks at firetrucks, birds, or anything that annoys them or gets their attention, it is because they are bored and need to be inside the house with the family.

Interesting. I know lots of people who have their dogs outside during the day. Whether it's because they are at work all day, or just cause their dogs like being outside all day. Meeklo barks because he is alive. He seems to think that it is his duty to bark. We had a bark collar on him for awhile, it emitted this high pitched noise every time he barked loudly. At first it startled him, but then he got used to it and probably thought it was a heart monitor or something telling him that he was still alive and well. He barks when he is outside, he also barked when we had him in the house many moons ago (read: prechild era)

I got the mail and saw the article and saved it for Chris. Big mistake. He actually read the whole darn thing and was saddened cause he agreed with it. To a degree. He really wants the dogs in the house with us. I do not. I don't want another thing/person to clean up after. My sister REALLY doesn't want the dogs in the house because 1. she is slightly afraid of them (what? Mally is pushing 150lbs. What's to be scared of?...) 2. she thinks they are the filthiest beasts in the world and cannot even entertain the notion of living in the same house as them. Especially while she has a child that insists on licking EVERYTHING.

So this article really ruffled quite a few feathers. My mom was afraid we were going to get arrested by the police. Jeehon mentioned in passing that she didn't mind if the dogs moved into the house, cause then she would just move to Toronto. I told Chris that if my sister moved to Toronto because of the dogs I would be ashamed and sad and mad, etc. Chris wants the dogs in the house, but he also wants to meet this concerned neighbor who didn't even have the common decency to come and meet us face to face. Had they come and voiced their opinion, Chris would have 'politely' told them that the main reason our dogs are outside is because Jeehon is living with us because her husband is in Iraq fighting for the freedom of idiots like this new neighbor of ours.

The dogs are getting a lot more loving now in this house than they did when we lived in Gilbert. I hated our backyard in the other house, so I never went outside. They were entirely Chris' responsibility. Now that we live here, Lily loves going outside and so we hang out with the dogs at least once a day, change their water, and spray down the patio to cool it down. Don't they look like happy pups from their pics? Mally just loves giving the kids pony rides.

Anyway, so I mentioned all this to my friend Mary Beth when she came over for coffee and cake on Wednesday (one of my favorite times of the week!) I started off with 'Oh yeah, Chris and I almost got divorced this week...' When I finished telling her all of the above, she calmly asked if I knew who our concerned neighbor was, and I told her I didn't. She then very slowly said 'It was Jeff.' Her husband. It was a joke. Apparently he has a few articles that he was going to mail to us, well, really Chris, and he started off with this one. He probably should have sent the one about weeds first. Anyway, after I processed everything, I realized it was the funniest, and not funniest jokes anyone has ever played on us. Jeff felt really bad about it all when Mary Beth told him what our reaction was. But then we all remembered that we had forgotten Jeff's birthday earlier this month, so now we are all even.