Saturday, April 07, 2007

Good Fences Make for Good Neighbors

And I sincerely wish my neighbors would heed that homily!
They have a Chihuahua that has learned how to dig under the wood fence between their yard and ours. So far the little terror has come into our yard three times. Everytime we have scooped him up and returned him to his owners. Except today.
Today, when I reached behind the bush for him, he yelped at me. Now I've been around dogs my entire life. Never owned a Chi, would take one on a bet. I think the are nervous, yappy little rat dogs. And because they are nervous things you can't trust them not to nip you.
So once he yelped, all bets were off. The owner was standing in the street, watching me attempt to coax his dog out of my hedge while holding Ben with one hand. I asked him to come get his dog so that I would not get bit.
The Dearly Beloved had heard Ben and Boo barking. They didn't like it that this intruder was in their yard, AGAIN, and yelping at their Mama. Since I had Ben under control, DB grabbed Boo's collar. That way the neighbor would feel safe in retrieving his wayward Chi. Once he was inside the front gate, DB looked at him and asked, "Aren't you going to fix the hole where he keeps getting through?" The neighbor shrugged and said, "I thought I had."
Well, y'all know me, mouthy woman that I am, I simply couldn't keep my lips zipped, now could I? "Well, it upsets OUR dogs when your dog invades THEIR yard." He called his dog to him and the dog glanced at Boo and Ben and ran like a Greyhound to the safety of his owner's arms. He, the owner apologized and said he'd try again to fix the fence.Let's hope he does a better job the FOURTH time he fixes it. And that he puts that dog on a tie out.

We have fenced our yard on all sides. We patched the gaps in the fence when we got the dogs. When the electronic fence across the driveway quit working we put in the driveway gate. It's not convenient to open and close it manually when we go someplace, but we do it because that is the responsible thing to do. We do not let our dogs roam the neighborhood at will.
If I hang a NO Trespassing sign on the fence and the Chi comes back ...can I shoot it? and get away with it? Or would that cause hard feelings?

3 comments:

phlegmfatale said...

In your case, I'd be sorely tempted to let Boo and Ben dispatch the Chihuahua as they see fit. They're smart dogs, and the owner can't say he didn't know...

But I'm evil. Don't listen to me.

Matt G said...

phlegmfatale, they've pretty well been using that technique.

Inadvertantly.

Holly, the time will come when Ben gets a hankering to order in for Mexican, and this, too, shall pass.


(And then you, JPG, or I will be cleaning it up with the pooper scooper.)

shooter said...

leave giant mousetraps (the BIG kind) at the edge of each new hole. You don't have to scent them or bait them. The dog will get inquisitive enough to put his nose where it shouldn't be. Thus endeth the lesson. We used sidewalk paver stones to cover where our dog dug through the fence.