A few months ago, we adopted Ashley a beautiful gentle red cattle dog. I have seen for myself how gentle she is with the baby and how loyal she is. We had absolutely no problems with her at all and she was just lovely. A few weeks after, our new neighbours moved in... along with a whole bunch of 19 of their rabbits.
Our new neighbours are a young couple around our age and have a baby around Kasey's age and we do get along. We have chatted to them and all; I personally have no problems if they want to have 19 rabbits.
The only thing was, our male neighbor decided to hate on Ashley and started antagonising her a lot. By antagonising, I mean yelling at her, spraying water at her, threatening her, banging on the fence loudly to scare her, leaning over the fence to yell at her, telling us he would like to pour hot water over her etc. This obviously made Ashley very wary of him and everytime he comes out into the yard, she would bark at him. His wife however, is obviously much more of an animal lover and has no problems with Ashley and Ashley doesn't really bark at her either.
We have politely asked them if they could kindly move their 19 rabbits away from the fence as the rabbits, in a whole group, make an alarming amount of noise in the quiet of the night. They would make loud stomping/scratching noises and this would make Ashley bark sometimes to alarm us to the noises.
The ranger has come over a couple of times now saying we have had complaints about a barking dog which really surprised us as Ashley doesn't actually bark a lot. The only time she ever barks is at this particular antagonising neighbour and when the whole collective bunch of 19 rabbits make noises right next to the fence {which is really, just what any good guard dog would do}. When the ranger mentioned it was specifically the cattle dog and not our other dog Buddy, I suspected it was our neighbor right away because if it were some other neighbor further away, they wouldn't have known it was specifically a cattle dog.
However, our neighbours were really nice and civil so we discarded any suspicions we had. They even seem to sympathised with us about the ranger coming over. "I think it's that old lady over there." "I'm sure it's that neighbor down the street there." "I don't get it, why must they complain? Why can't they just speak to you nicely first?"
We are on rather friendly terms with this couple (more so the wife); we chat to them and even invited them for a barbeque when they first moved in. They gave us a shelf they didn't want, we regularly lend tools and help one another.
Imagine our shock when last week, our neighbor came over with chocolates and a gift card and said "I'm sorry. It was me who rang the ranger. It was a real low act of me especially when you are nice people."
I felt sorry for him as he seemed to feel really bad. We thanked him for his honesty and told him not to worry about it.
Honestly though, the more we have thought about it, the angrier we have become because we realize now what shocking good actors these people are to have still come over and pretended they didn't know and even gave us suggestions about who might have rang the ranger!
Even if we don't bear grudges now, it is sadly too late as we have been told we have to make some arrangements if not we will get a fine for nuisance and our dog will be listed as a "nuisance dog".
I am simply so upset because to begin with, Ashley was a gentle, lovely dog who is actually just a victim of being antagonised and threatened repeatedly. And constantly alarmed by the amount of noises 19 rabbits make right next to the fence.
If she wasn't antagonised, if the 19 rabbits were housed in a more courteous manner just a little further away from the fence... we would not have had a problem at all. Everyone who meets Ashley says she is a beautiful, gentle dog. Especially when they see how gentle she is around the baby.
Today, we made arrangements to give her to a friend. Even though we might still get to see her around, I was close to tears to see her go, seeing the look of confusion in her eyes as she was taken in her new owners' car and away to a new home.
I wouldn't call myself the ultimate dog lover. But I have always been one to sign cards off with my dogs names as well because in my eyes, they are a part of my family. They are... mine. Ours. Reliant on us for love, for food, for essentials, for comfort, for survival.
My husband did point out that oh well, the neighbor didn't have to come clean and tell us that it was he who called the ranger to get the dog in trouble. At least he finally had the integrity to. I do agree with that.
It is just too late however and apologies sadly don't really solve the problem now that I have lost a family member.
Couldn't resist. Source Linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT