Sunday, February 26, 2012

The one where the police show up

So.

Today is my husband's birthday.

Last night we went out for his birthday. I'd arranged for a monitor-sitter to arrive at 7:15, just after we'd gotten the girls down for the night.

I was a little surprised to hear a knock on our door at 7:09, just moments after we'd put the girls down. I opened it, assuming our fabulous sitter had just arrive a few minutes early. I didn't even bother to check out the window to make sure.

You can imagine my surprise when this greeted me at the door:



Okay, so maybe not quite, but there was a police officer standing there.

He explained that one of our neighbors complained about our dogs barking.

Please believe me that it is not an exaggeration when I say that all our neighbors have dogs. Every.Single.One.

So, I found it difficult to swallow that ours were any more disruptive than another.

Whatever. I'm not sure this police officer particularly likes his job, so he wasn't up for conversation.

And. Over his shoulder I could see my sweet babysitter driving back and forth past my house--canvasing to see if it was safe, or not. My phone was ringing too, which was also her, concerned if everything was okay.

In an attempt to keep her from bailing, we brought the dogs inside without further question.

Our sitter said she saw the squad car stop at someone else's house before she decided the coast was clear here---the complaining neighbor---so Brad decided he was going to "have a talk with them" on the way to dinner.

There's nothing that makes me more anxious than confrontation. So, I quickly busied myself on my phone, like if I didn't watch, it wasn't really happening, or something.

After about five minutes, Brad returned.

He told me that the lady actually called the police for animal cruelty. She thought we'd left our dogs "tied to a tree" for hours on end, and that 35 degrees was too cold for dogs to be outside.

Since that wasn't enough reason to send the cavalry, she went with the barking noise disturbance story for the police.

She then said that all of the above was really concerning, because of "all the graves" we had in our backyard--probably other animals we'd left tied to trees in the bitter cold.

Okay, so before any animal lovers go postal on me, our dogs love to be outside on the dog run--they don't mind the cold; they especially love the snow. We don't always have them out there, they are primarily inside dogs. But, when we have people coming over after the girls are asleep, we put them out, because their barks wake the girls.

Alive and well.

As for the "graves":





We are so grieved that we couldn't save you all from the harsh winter frost, especially you, Heirloom Tomatoes. R.I.P.

What we have here is certainly a failure to communicate.

(These are actually our neighbors' graves, not ours, but it was too funny not to photograph.)

8 comments:

MandyE (Twin Trials and Triumphs) said...

Oh, my...I'm laughing...with you, I hope...at least after some time has passed??? Maybe???

That stinks to have a "neighbor" call the police to your house. I put that in quotes, as I like to think "neighbor" means more than just someone who lives next door, but I recognize that's not always the case. Grrr...

I hope it at least gave you and Brad some funny dinner fodder? ;) And thank goodness that was your trusted babysitter, and not a newbie. :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for giving me my smile for the day! On a side note, you are more than welcome to call me if you should need to be bailed out of jail............
Tehehehehehehe!!!!
Liesl

Momma K said...

Wow. I'm glad everything turned out ok. Your "neighbor" sounds like my neighbors mother. She yelled at me a few years ago for letting our dog run outside when it was a warm day. He wanted to run outside....I wasn't forcing him to be outside. I call her grandma witch because she lives in the Edwardsville area and she treats her dog like he is a king. She even takes him to the chiropractor. :)

Lauren said...

LlLOOOLLLL!!!

So what ARE "all the graves" in your backyard, if those graves are in your neighbours yard?

We have had town officials come to our house because our crochety, overweight, single lady next door complained about all the "workout" noises coming from our garage.

Yeah, whatever.

Miss Megan said...

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Seriously?! What is the deal with your neighbor?! She sounds a little nutty =).
Love your graves by the way =)
On an unrelated note, I have passed "The Incredibly Sweet" Blog award on to you, should you choose to accept it. Details can be found in my blog post from earlier today. I love your blog, and thought I'd pass along the bloggy love! =)

Helene said...

Oh. My. Gosh. This post made me laugh so hard I snorted!!!

This neighbor obviously has nothing better to do than be the neighborhood spy/snitch.

May your zucchini rest in peace!

Emmy said...

Lol! Holy cow that is hilarious! And highly obnoxious too- darn nosy neighbor- wow. Came from your husband's blog- now off to read what he said about it.

Corinne Ritz said...

OH NO SHE DID NOT!!!!! That is crazy!!!! So So So So Funny!!!!! It is a really good thing that Brad went and talked to her. Maybe it scared her off from ever calling again:) This is not very nice of me to say, but she sounds completely crazy!