The not so nice neighbors...

When I daydreamed of owning my first home, I never (even in my WILDEST dreams) thought that I'd have neighbors (a husband and wife) who act like two year olds.

Here's the story. 

A little over a year ago, Luke and I moved into our first home.  We were so excited for the opportunity to own our own home before we had been married 6 months.  When we moved in we met the neighbors in our cul-de-sac.  All of them seemed so nice.  Boy was I wrong (about one set of neighbors that is).  The neighbors to the right of our home were kind to us when we first moved in.  They said hello.  They loved on our dog, Buddy, when we first got him.  Everything seemed perfect until we brought home our second dog, Lady.  She is the cutest, sweetest, and kindest dog I've ever had.  She's nothing but a big baby.  Sure her bark may be fierce, but she would never hurt anyone.  One day lady had jumped our fence and gotten into the neighbors yard.  I happened to look out the window in our laundry room and caught Lady jumping the fence.  I quickly ran outside and got her from the neighbors yard.  I breathed a sigh of relief because neither of the neighbors had been outside, so I assumed they didn't see lady jump into their yard for a second.  Well, I was wrong.  Within an hour, the animal control showed up on our front porch.  I had NEVER been in trouble with the law, much less animal control.  I was terrified.  I just knew they were going to send me to jail for some horrible animal crime or something.  That day was the first of many times we've encountered the animal control.  Every time the control officer rings our doorbell, I wonder if this will be the time they take my dogs away or ship me off to jail.  Each time the officer says "we've received a complaint" about a dog barking, getting into someones yard, being neglected (which they're NOT!!!). 

Today started out like this....I went back to sleep after Luke kissed me goodbye as he was leaving for work.  About 7:40 a.m. I hear something at the front of the house.  I'm always paranoid if Luke doesn't lock the front door after he leaves because I'm afraid someone will break in to the house while I'm there alone.  I sat straight up in bed.  I heard the front door banging.  I just KNEW someone had broken in (or at least was trying to).  I slowly got out of bed while trying not to make a lot of sound (just in case someone WAS in the house).  I peeked around the corner of our bedroom and saw nothing.  So, I continued on to the front of the house and looked out of the windows on our front door.  There had been a trash bag of junk from one of our cars that we cleaned out on the front porch, but this morning it was strewn all across our porch.  It was weird to me.  I chalked it up to the neighbors cat getting into it.  So, I made sure that the door locked before I went back to check my email.  While I was in the office I heard the same sound I had heard previously.  What if someone really WAS trying to break in and now they couldn't because I locked the door.  So, once again, I slowly made my way to the living room.  I peered out the front door windows again and this time I knew what it was.  When I looked down I saw that cute, sweet, and kind dog knocking at my door.  Literally, this dog was on her back legs with one paw on the house and the other on our door.  She was trying to get someone to let her in.  Grant it, she's a smart dog, who else knows a dog that knocks to have someone let her in?  Well, I opened the door and let her in.  I was furious!  I knew the only way she ended up on my front porch was by her jumping our fence and going into our neighbors yard.  Somehow she had gotten out of their yard (they probably just let her out, hoping she'd get hit or something).  The chain we've had her latched to that allows her to roam our yard and do her business and come into our sun room for shelter was attached to her collar.  Some how the darn thing snapped.  Since I had let Lady in, I knew that the neighbors would probably call to complain.  Once again, I was right.  I was getting ready to take some paperwork to my job when the doorbell rang.  It was the animal police....AGAIN!  She proceeded to tell me the normal junk about how someone complained and blah blah blah...but this time, she said they complained saying they thought our PUPPIES were being neglected.  This was no longer about our Lady, it's about our ignorant and rude neighbors.  They are out for us!  So, I offered to show the Animal lady the puppies.  She was amazed and could NOT believe that someone even called in on us.  She said that the puppies are so cute and are really healthy, and there was NO reason for anyone to call them on us.  I thanked the lady for doing her job, and asked her to let them know that everything was okay.  She said she would tell them and would try to stop the calls completely. 

I guess this is what we get for not spending the money for a privacy fence.  I love my little house.  I mean, it's MY first house.  But this whole neighbor issue really bothers me.  When we moved in, the neighbors told us about how they purposely tried running off the people that lived in our house before us.  When they told us that we should have known they were trouble.  But, no!  We're nice and gave them the benefit of the doubt.  But let me tell you, the benefit of the doubt is LONG GONE!  I am to the point where I am looking forward to moving into another house just so I can get away from the neighbors from *insert rude comment*.