"Love thy neighbor." These are the words I said to myself while looking out the window at my neighbor (who has absolutely no concept of boundaries) slipping my dog a buscuit through the fence. Let me start by saying
I think she means well. Who would get aggravated about one dog buscuit? no one. What frustrates me is her inability to let me parent my own child and
dog. Yes, and my D.O.G. The first day I met her she says, "So this is Alabama, aren't you supposed to invite me to your church?" I responded that she didn't need an invite; in Alabama she is welcome to go to any church she likes. That was definitely weird. Since then she has made several comments about using a tin bowl for the dog water outside. "It's not big enough." Keep in mind my dog is NOT an outside dog. She is inside most of the day with me and only goes outside if the weather is really nice or I leave the house. That way she is not cooped up in her crate. So I get home one day to find a large square tuberware bowl full of water inside the fence. Her house is on the opposite side of my house from the gate door so she walked around my house and into my backyard. So I wait a day and then return her tuberware to her porch knawed and chewed up beyond recognition. Only she and I knew what it used to be. With a half smile, I walked back home:) So that should be the end, right? Nope! Let's see... "Lisa, I brought a dood
ie bag over. Can I pick up Maya's droppings so she doesnt have to live with them in the yard?" This is not NY or a public park and we have a pooper scooper (a rather large one) if it stinks we will do it- WE will. Maya loves people! She loves being on the front porch to watch walkers and cars going by. She is not even a whole year yet so her puppiness wants to run with joggers and chase squirrels and such so we link her collar to a red cable wire around the brick column or the light post beside my car and everyone is happy....everyone but Mrs. G! How many times have I heard bantering outside the door asking the dog, "Oh you poor thing! You must be so lonely.. blah blah blah." Finally I said "Let her be!" I dont talk to my elders this way (no she is not elderly but older than me, probably my mother's age 50). Now Savannah loves Mrs. G! Which is great because she is a very nice and animated lady. Great with children and apparently dogs ;) She lets Savannah read to her while she does her gardening and with the new baby and required 20 minute reading each night for 1st grade it nice to have a break sometimes. However when she comes home with a checklist in a Pink folder of all the things she will do to improve her conduct at school ( she was receiving B's for a couple weeks straight ). Whoa Lady! I was so proud of myself because I did not march right over there and tell her the process of having children if she wanted to parent so bad. Did I ever mention how blount I am? I mentioned I do think she has good intentions which is what has stopped me from being my usual blount self and the need for for civil surroundings at my home. Th
e episode that initiated this particular blog occured yesterday. Around 11AM while I was shop vacuuming I heard my doorbell. I then heard Mrs. G' speaking very loudly apparently to a neighbor or possibly Maya, who knows? I ignored it. Any moms of babies know that housework is sometimes hard to do so when you have the chance you have to do it right then and I just figured the worst that could happen was Maya would have fresh water. Little did I know that when I finished I would find a note on my door saying that Maya had somehow escaped and Mrs. G was going to take her on a walk around the neighborhood..huh????? How did this seem like a reasonable thing to do to this educated (I assume- she is a nurse and actually used to work for Fannie Flagg while she wrote Fried Green Tomotoes!) lady? Again I said nothing but for some reason I can only attribute to shock, I actually said, "Thank you." Well I (and she) walked around back to see how she may have possibly gotten out, to no avail. I went back inside and retrieved a bowl of can dogfood because I knew she could not resist that! Sure enough, she jumped right through the part of the chain fence that meets with the wooden fence. An opening my husband had suggested and I said with complete confidence was entirely too small to fathom her making it through there. We laughed and as she finished her bowl I b
rought her inside with me and decided to leave the plugging of that whole up to my husband. Until this morning when I returned from the gym to find my nosy, rude, boundary-less, good intentioned neighbor had already decided to fix it by pulling our iron clothes hanging rod (as old as our house is 1920's) into the spot and fasting a closet organizer shelf onto the fence to block the opening. All this I am thinking about as I dream of telling her what she can do with that dog buscuit.
dog. Yes, and my D.O.G. The first day I met her she says, "So this is Alabama, aren't you supposed to invite me to your church?" I responded that she didn't need an invite; in Alabama she is welcome to go to any church she likes. That was definitely weird. Since then she has made several comments about using a tin bowl for the dog water outside. "It's not big enough." Keep in mind my dog is NOT an outside dog. She is inside most of the day with me and only goes outside if the weather is really nice or I leave the house. That way she is not cooped up in her crate. So I get home one day to find a large square tuberware bowl full of water inside the fence. Her house is on the opposite side of my house from the gate door so she walked around my house and into my backyard. So I wait a day and then return her tuberware to her porch knawed and chewed up beyond recognition. Only she and I knew what it used to be. With a half smile, I walked back home:) So that should be the end, right? Nope! Let's see... "Lisa, I brought a dood
ie bag over. Can I pick up Maya's droppings so she doesnt have to live with them in the yard?" This is not NY or a public park and we have a pooper scooper (a rather large one) if it stinks we will do it- WE will. Maya loves people! She loves being on the front porch to watch walkers and cars going by. She is not even a whole year yet so her puppiness wants to run with joggers and chase squirrels and such so we link her collar to a red cable wire around the brick column or the light post beside my car and everyone is happy....everyone but Mrs. G! How many times have I heard bantering outside the door asking the dog, "Oh you poor thing! You must be so lonely.. blah blah blah." Finally I said "Let her be!" I dont talk to my elders this way (no she is not elderly but older than me, probably my mother's age 50). Now Savannah loves Mrs. G! Which is great because she is a very nice and animated lady. Great with children and apparently dogs ;) She lets Savannah read to her while she does her gardening and with the new baby and required 20 minute reading each night for 1st grade it nice to have a break sometimes. However when she comes home with a checklist in a Pink folder of all the things she will do to improve her conduct at school ( she was receiving B's for a couple weeks straight ). Whoa Lady! I was so proud of myself because I did not march right over there and tell her the process of having children if she wanted to parent so bad. Did I ever mention how blount I am? I mentioned I do think she has good intentions which is what has stopped me from being my usual blount self and the need for for civil surroundings at my home. Th
e episode that initiated this particular blog occured yesterday. Around 11AM while I was shop vacuuming I heard my doorbell. I then heard Mrs. G' speaking very loudly apparently to a neighbor or possibly Maya, who knows? I ignored it. Any moms of babies know that housework is sometimes hard to do so when you have the chance you have to do it right then and I just figured the worst that could happen was Maya would have fresh water. Little did I know that when I finished I would find a note on my door saying that Maya had somehow escaped and Mrs. G was going to take her on a walk around the neighborhood..huh????? How did this seem like a reasonable thing to do to this educated (I assume- she is a nurse and actually used to work for Fannie Flagg while she wrote Fried Green Tomotoes!) lady? Again I said nothing but for some reason I can only attribute to shock, I actually said, "Thank you." Well I (and she) walked around back to see how she may have possibly gotten out, to no avail. I went back inside and retrieved a bowl of can dogfood because I knew she could not resist that! Sure enough, she jumped right through the part of the chain fence that meets with the wooden fence. An opening my husband had suggested and I said with complete confidence was entirely too small to fathom her making it through there. We laughed and as she finished her bowl I b
rought her inside with me and decided to leave the plugging of that whole up to my husband. Until this morning when I returned from the gym to find my nosy, rude, boundary-less, good intentioned neighbor had already decided to fix it by pulling our iron clothes hanging rod (as old as our house is 1920's) into the spot and fasting a closet organizer shelf onto the fence to block the opening. All this I am thinking about as I dream of telling her what she can do with that dog buscuit.
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