Dogs

I really do like dogs. My sister and I had a dog when we were much younger (we miss you Muffy!) and if Michael and I didn't live in a condo we'd probably have a dog ourselves right now. And once we do get a dog we'll probably end up with a couple since I think I would like a cute small dog and he would want a larger, more protective dog. Either way it would be nice to have a good sized yard so any dog could run and play and get some exercise and we don't have that right now.
Michael and I getting a dog is definitely not the topic of my blog today. No, instead I have decided to vent all my frustrations concerning our neighbors, who have two small dogs...and who let said dogs bark outside our bedroom windows. Every. Single. Day.
This has been going on for literally a couple years, probably since they got the first dog. Our condo is on the bottom floor and they live in a town home that attaches to the end of the building and backs up directly to our unit. They have a back door that opens to a small patch of community grass that runs the entire length of the building. This patch of grass runs right by our entire condo, including all our windows. These "lovely" neighbors like to tie up their two dogs just outside their back door to let the dogs go to the bathroom....and every single time they run right under our bedroom windows.....and bark. And bark. And bark. At literally nothing. Conveniently for our neighbors they can't hear the dogs (or they are deaf) and the barking goes on and on until I am ready to scream (and often do...at the dogs, the neighbors, just whoever). As I mentioned, we have been dealing with this for well over a year....even my former roommate (before I was even married) can recall trying to study while the dog would bark away outside. We have tried all kinds of things to get this to stop...Michael has repeatedly gone over to merely ask them to bring in the dogs, we both have apps on our iphones for dog whistles that are supposed to hurt the dogs' ears, we will bang on the connecting wall and yell for them to bring in the stupid dogs....and most recently Michael has been talking a lot about digging a big trench or building a big wall of some sort blocking the dogs from getting near our windows (neither of which we can do, but the idea isn't terrible). In the past we have discussed planting poisonous plants (not really sure what plants would be poisonous to dogs), spraying them with our hose every time we hear them, buying a bird house that has an anti-bark alarm to hang out by our window...even buying muzzles and leaving them at our neighbors doorstep. In desperate times we have even discussed getting a bigger, meaner, louder dog that could possibly scare their dogs into shutting up and at our most frustrated we have considered inviting my brother over with his handy-dandy bb gun to do some damage.
Here is what is the most awful and irritating about this whole thing. It almost always happens when we are already sleeping or trying to get to sleep. Don't get me wrong, it happens all day long, almost every single day of the week. Some of you may have even been on the phone with me, trying to have a normal conversation, and heard the obnoxious barking in the background. But it is without a doubt the most annoying thing in the world when I am startled out of a deep sleep or even worse when I am trying to get to sleep in the first place. I am not getting a whole lot of sleep these days...between getting up to go to the bathroom and trying to get and stay comfortable. Not to mention Michael's occasional snoring, haha. The very last thing I want to hear is a dog (not even mine) barking right outside my bedroom window.
So anyway, this morning was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak. I get up each morning at 8:15am. On a typical morning Michael leaves for work at about quarter till 8 and I get about half an hour of totally quiet, uninterrupted sleep. No offense to him but usually that is the most sound sleep I end up getting each night. Today he was leaving for work early, at 7, and I was really excited to get a good long hour of blissful sleep. Not so much. About ten minutes till 7 (yes, 6:50am) the dogs began barking outside the window. I heard Michael leave and squeezed my eyes shut and tried to ignore the noise. But getting woken up with a loud bark definitely makes the heart beat faster and as the barking continued I began to get upset....you can imagine how upset I was HALF AN HOUR LATER when the dogs were still barking. Since there was no going back to sleep I finally got up and as I got ready for work I plotted a very strongly worded email to the President of our Home Owners Association. Which I did send as soon as I got to work and typed it up, thank you very much. To my surprise, she responded immediately. She said she understood how we felt and would be annoyed too (and that she imagined it is probably 10 times worse since I am pregnant). She assured me that she would have the HOA Management company issue the neighbors a written violation and would also call them and talk to them herself....since they are breaking a rule of just tying up dogs and leaving them unattended. I was very happy with how she has handled it thus far and can't wait for the peace and quiet to settle over my home.
Do I realize that these neighbors will know right away that we must've complained and had something to do with the violation notice?? Yup. Do I care at all? Nope. I am so happy right now just looking forward to the possibility of not hearing those dogs every single day. Clearly it has taken me way longer than necessary to take action on this matter but now that I have, I already feel better.
We can't move, we can't dig a big trench and we can't have my brother shooting up the place to stop the annoying barking......but if all it takes is a phone call or email, we sure can do that. And I am happy that we finally did. :-)