I Yell at People
August 10th, 2006 
by Susan Harris
Not often, mind you, but it happens. I’m really not the yelling type but my garden apparently has the power to transform me. Here’s my version of the latest incident.
I’m relaxing in my Adirondack chair when suddenly a good-sized black dog appears, terribly agitated and crashing through my garden in hot pursuit of a squirrel. I leap into action to shoo the intruder away but he’s way too engrossed in his task to listen to me. Some guy I’ve never seen in my life comes crashing through my neighbor’s meticulously landscaped garden to say - not "oh, sorry about that; I’ll come get my dog immediately" - simply "Hi, there" with a friendly smile. Well, I was in no mood for a "Hi, there" and what he got in return was "Get your dog out of my garden!" and "There’s a leash law, ya know." All in defense of my garden - it was being invaded, you could say ravaged! At the very least and following the thought in my previous post, my children were about to be trampled on.
From the dog-owner’s point of view, he’d just moved into his and his family’s new dream home on a famously neighborly street and was taking his dog for a stroll. Some mishap with the leash resulted in the dog taking off to explore and the dog-owning neighbor ended up getting chewed out by the decidedly unfriendly woman who lives - oops - two houses away. Gee, the realtor never said anything about that.
How was I to know he’s my newest very close neighbor, with whom it’s so important to have good relations??? Damn, and I’ve noticed a humorous anti-Bush bumper sticker on one of their cars, so I’ll most assuredly like them. Looks like I have some ’splaining to do.
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August 10th, 2006 at 2:56 pm
Oops! Love the dog picture though.
August 11th, 2006 at 9:16 am
And yet we keep hearing (from other gardeners, of course) what nice people gardeners are! Until somebody attacks our babies…
I could tell a story or two myself, but I’d rather you thought I was very nice.
August 11th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
Neighbor or not….keep your freakin dog under control. It looks like a pitbull too.
August 11th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
Neighbor or not….keep your freakin dog under control. It looks like a pitbull too.
August 11th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
Neighbor or not….keep your freakin dog under control. It looks like a pitbull too.
August 11th, 2006 at 2:16 pm
I think there’s an echo in here. How about taking him a plate of brownies, or dog biscuits or -I’ve got it - a plant. I think he’s learned his lesson, and you need to make nice, (The dog looks kinda goony!)
August 12th, 2006 at 2:35 pm
there’s a difference between being invaded and ravaged! i’d say your garden was invaded by the hound!
barrie
August 12th, 2006 at 7:27 pm
Oops! Take Millie’s advice. She’s occasionally right about things.
August 15th, 2006 at 2:42 am
The dog is doing the damage but it is the owner’s responsibility of ensuring that his pet is a good neighbor. Being an Aussie, one of my dogs also has a high prey drive and he sometimes, but not often, will chase wildlife. I usually have him under control with leads and penning but accidents and my carelessness happen. I always feel like a fool, and a bit of shame, that I have allowed him to do it. I am sometimes looked on as the odd one in the neighborhood by the fact I insist all of my dogs be on leads for their walks. Most everyone else never leashes their dogs with the result there is sometimes undesirable dog interactions. My rural area does not have a leash law and most likely never will.
BARK magazine has an article regarding black dogs, their adoption difficulties, and how they fill shelters in numbers out of proportion to their population numbers. Hopefully prospective owners will look past the dogs’ color and see that many of them have winning personalities and will be their perfect forever dog. I think that is a grand idea and try to apply it to all facets of my life.
August 15th, 2006 at 9:42 am
Such a real story you tell–it’ll end okay as you are part way there w/the bumper sticker…I live with two big dogs trained not to poop on my lawn nor enter my garden without my permission–they have learned by trial & error and overall take heed, however, I have friends who think I want to see their dogs when they visit me and bring them along as if they were their kids. The dogs jump out of the car to romp with my dogs and next thing I have turned into a shrew as I protect my gardens from my dear friends’ dogs. This can break a friendship.
August 15th, 2006 at 3:57 pm
*ouch*
I have my own on that note to tell. Neighborhood kid that I don’t see very often is in our yard. The two dogs go nuts. Mark gets one inside and goes out to get the other.
I see the kid leaning down near the fence and go all arch on his case.
“I suppose you can’t read?” I hiss, pointing to the ‘no tresspassing’ signs designed to keep the unwary away from my adorable small dogs monsters.
He heaves once or twice, then moves off.
Turns out his puppy had slipped the yard/leash and led the poor kid to a merry chase, and then me, THAT MEAN OLD LADY ON THE CORNER, had to ice his cake.
Sigh.
Regret that, I do. Saw my mistake within the next few minutes, but the damage was done.
That kid stays FAR AWAY from the crazy lady. I don’t blame him.
August 15th, 2006 at 4:02 pm
If the pic is of the dog, he looks like a sweetheart.
His body language - ‘puppy posture ears’ politely held back, open mouth, easy gaze without a stare.
Hopefully he won’t be a barker, and things will work out well.
August 16th, 2006 at 11:57 am
I’ve actually had several encounters with neighborhood dogs and/or children, and I am a “yeller,” (well, under my breath, anyway — does that make me a mutterer?), but I managed to restrain myself.
Nobody is more surprised than I am. We’ve had a springer spaniel chasing squirrels and stopping for a nice poop in a strange yard (several times), another dog coming over to investigate the bird suet, children stomping on plants and shrubs and playing ‘picnic’ under the hydrangea while leaning large tree branches on the new window screens, and somebody vandalized the feeders by shaking bird seed all over the yard. (The joke’s on them — the birds found it all anyway.)
Amazingly, I haven’t yelled once. I’ve actually managed to be polite but firm with the children and the dog owners.
I also stapled or otherwise fastened sections of hardware cloth across the tempting hidey-hole behind the garage and the freeway entrance between the cellar door and the privet hedge. Our yard hosts a shortcut to the neighborhood school (we found after we moved in) and apparently the whole place was regarded as public property.
Worked like a charm — the only traffic in the back yard now is birds, squirrels, and me, although the shortcut is still open. (And yes, I’m sure we’re The Crabby Neighbors now, at least to some extent.)
The green plastic stuff is ugly, though. It’s getting to be time to look for something more aesthetic and solid.
August 30th, 2006 at 9:29 am
I had dog problems from day 1 when I moved into my house-BIG dogs, depositing large piles of you-know-what for me to clean. Their owners were neither apologetic nor responsible. When I yelled at the dogs to “encourage” them to leave, they would snarl, and their owners followed suit (apparently anyone who dislike rude, intrusive pets is a jerk!) Well, the final solution was a fence…I no longer had to rely on them to be responsible, nor did I need to yell, call animal control, etc. They still don’t like me, but the feeling is mutual, and my gardens are nice. What’s more, now they can clean up after their own pets…just like I had to clean up after mine.(I no longer have a dog myself, but when I did, there was NO hope that theirs would stay home when they had someone to “visit”) Good neighbor relations are important, but peace and calm in your own yard are also. Even a low but effective fence can say “I’m friendly”, but keep dogs out. (Mine is a 6′ privacy fence-blocks the surly faces of the unfriendly owners, too.) Good luck!
August 31st, 2006 at 8:10 am
Oops. I hope that wasn’t my dog!