Barking Mad

Blake and I have a neighbor.  This particular neighbor has four cats that are allowed to run freely and three dogs that literally bark the entire time they are outside.  When we moved in seven months ago my initial issue was with the cats.  They enjoy defecating in my elevated flower bed that runs the length of our front porch.  There's nothing that says "Welcome to our new home!" like the smell of cat poo in the Oklahoma summer.  Blake, myself, and even my mother all politely let her know about the problem.  She apologized, she said she would keep them inside, she even told me one day that "Cat feces is very good for your soil."  Wha?!  W.O.W. that went over well.  What a maroon right?  (I have to inject here, a maroon is a moron.  You can thank my daddy for that one)  So I sprayed our beds with a substance called Critter Ridder.  It has cayenne pepper in it and is supposed to irritate the cats paws so that they don't want to use your flower beds anymore.  Apparently these cats are from here in the South because they like it hot.  No effect.  Thanks $15 bottle of useless smelly crap. 

Next problem-About a month into living in our home the cats starting killing birds, squirrels, and bunnies in our yard.  I love our animals, I enjoy watching them play in the yard and gather food.  I do not enjoy watching a cat pounce them from the bushes, attacking the small animal and then running with it while I come screaming out the back door throwing wooden spoons at them.  I again told the neighbor about our problem and she told me she would "ground" the cats for doing what they had done.  Is anyone else starting to see the delusion present here?  Great, you're grounding the cat?  Could you also take away their Wii and cell phone, I think they really deserve a severe punishment for this particular offense.  Within a few weeks both killer cats were back on the prowl and have been ever since.  The killing has stopped, but that's probably more due to Blake and I yelling and spraying them with the hose than the strict punishment they received from their "mommy". 

Last but not least-Our lovely neighbor had a significant other when we moved in and she was home often.  The three barking dogs that I spoke about above were let out often during appropriate times of day, but only for a few minutes to do their business and then let back in.  Because of the short time they were out Blake and I dealt with the barking and took it in stride.  A few months back the significant other disappeared and with her disappeared our neighbor for the most part.  She now randomly shows up at home very early in the morning and late at night.  She let's the dogs out around 10:00 p.m. and let's them bark for an hour or so.  She shows up in the morning at lets them out between 5:30 and 6:30 a.m. and leaves them out for a couple of hours.  A few Saturdays ago she let them out at 6:00 a.m. By 7:00 Blake was livid and went next door and knocked on her door.  She didn't asnwer her front door, but he heard her open the back door and let the barking dogs in.  We thought that solved the problem, but slowly over the past few weeks she's been letting them out at insensitive times again and walking away. 

So very long story short I filed my first complaint with the city I live in today.  They wanted to set cat traps in my yard but I wasn't ready to be that aggressive yet.  I'm sure my husband would disagree.  He was ready to "take them on a ride" months ago.  I guess we'll see if there is improvment from here.  Fingers crossed!

Xo-Wife of Wright