Saturday, June 9, 2012

Rescue Braggarts

A while back, I read a news story about some neighbors. Story said that they were involved in animal rescue. They were doing all they could to save 'em from euthanasia.

Oops, excuse me. Another neighbor's rescue dog just went ballistic. Let me crack the blinds and see what the problem is.


Can't see a darn thing moving outside. Must be the wind rustling in the trees. Again.

Anyway, back to those other rescuers.

Before they moved in, they dropped the dogs off at their rental house down the street. Where the dog pack proceeded to bark at every living thing. I think they even barked at coyotes howling down along the Mexican border.

Things didn't improve after the owners moved in. Our block turned into a veritable kennel.

I reported the barking dogs to animal control, which sent the owners a Sternly Worded Letter. Yeah, that'll fix things.

Wasn't but a few days later when I saw an animal control officer down at the Rescue Haven. The man of the house was standing outside the wall around the property, and he was m-a-d. Shaking his fist, hollering at the animal control officer. I kept an eye on the proceedings -- you never know when you might have to call 911 to report an assault in progress.

Then came the calls from the Community Mediation Service. I ignored the first one, but picked up the second one. Guy on the other end said that the dog owners really wanted to mediate with me. Oh, did they ever.

Well, having been through the barking dog mediation process once before and finding it a complete waste of time and energy, I wasn't too eager to repeat the experience. And, wouldn't you know it, after the animal control officer paid them a call, they did quiet the dogs down.

So, I told our intrepid mediation guy that the people had quieted their barking dogs, so there was nothing to mediate. What I didn't tell him was that I didn't feel comfortable facing people who were so insistent on finding out who I was. Sounded like they were more interested in intimidation than mediation.

Things stayed relatively quiet for a few months. Then, total bark-cophony.

I hired a lawyer to write a letter to the property owner and the rescuer-tenants.

That prompted the landlord to make a personal visit to my attorney. Where he regaled my attorney with all the tales of troubles he'd had with these tenants. Why, he even tried to get them to move out, but that didn't work.

My lawyer clued him in on Arizona landlord-tenant law. In this state, landlords have many rights, including the right to evict problem tenants.

Oh, there goes that other rescue dog from across the street. Again. This time, it's taking umbrage at a jogger. Who's jogging down this side of this street. I guess the oh-so-hip, environmentally conscious owners are too busy saving the earth to let their dog back into the house.

Back to the landlord-tenant situation.

The tenants were so irate that I'd hired a lawyer to chastise their behavior that the lady of the house penned a lengthy diatribe that she personally delivered to my attorney's office. Let's just say that she had an arm's length relationship with the proper use of English grammar. And spelling. That was another class she missed.

But she did say that the dogs were there to protect them from all the criminals in the neighborhood. That passage resonated with me when I saw the lowlifes coming around to that place during the following summer.

It was easy to know when the lowlifes were visiting because the dogs never failed to announce their arrival. Nothing like being greeted with a chorus of barking.

What those people didn't know is that there are people around here who are quite concerned about criminal activity. So, when we see lowlifes frequenting a rental, we sense trouble and alert the police. Who paid the doggie rescue heroes a call.

Wouldn't you know it, a few days afterward, the lowlifes disappeared. And they didn't come back until right before these lovely neighbors moved.

After they moved out, they left the dogs behind. One of the lowlifes came around to feed them and do who-knows-what-else on the empty property. Sure didn't look to me like he was cleaning the house and the yard.

What really rang my alarm bells was the time he came by at midnight. Another neighbor's dog woke me up, and I cracked the blinds to see what the problem was.

Down the street, it was Mr. Lowlife leading some of the neighborhood kids off the street, through a gate, and I don't know if they went into the vacant house. There's a tall wall around this property, and you can't see who's going on unless you're right next to one of the gates.

What in the hell were the children doing with that guy at that hour? Were they being molested? Sure would have been easy for Mr. Lowlife to do that. No witnesses, after all.

Well, once again, the authorities were alerted, dogs were removed a few days later, and Mr. Lowlife stopped coming around.

The rescue people now live up a few blocks away. Last I heard, they were running some sort of pit bull rescue in their back yard. One of my friends went over there to check it out, and he said that one of the wigglebutts playfully nipped him.

If it had been me getting nipped, the owner of that property would be dealing with my attorney. And this time, there'd be a lawsuit.

The Department of Shameless Self-Promotion. Do you have neighbors who still haven't gotten the memo about chronic barking? Are you less than impressed by their doggie rescue heroism? Well, click on over to my QuietBarkingDogs store. Share your viewpoint with a "Responsible Owners Keep Their Dogs Quiet" bumper sticker. Or how about a "Barking Dogs Don't Reduce Crime - People Do" hooded sweatshirt for your lovely evening walks.

8 comments:

  1. Wow! You pretty much described a situation I had on my street. There was a nice old lady living there, beautiful house, and she had some "home care nurse" move in to help her...she was sick with m.s. The "home care nurse" turned out to be a fraud, and moved her boyfriend and her kids in with her, locked the old lady in a bedroom and barely fed and watered her. They also kept "rescuing" stray dogs and keeping them. There were 5 there, when the finally fled after the cops were tipped off that they were selling drugs to the "lowlifes" who kept showing up at the house.

    They fled and left one of the children (a toddler) and 5 dogs in the house alone, and the poor sick old lady in the back room barely alive. It was all in the local paper. The cops called an ambulance who took the poor old lady to the hospital, and CPS came to get the abandoned child. Animal control came and got the 5 dogs and god knows what happened to them. The house was so absolutely filthy that anyone who entered had to wear masks. The cops told us that there was feces and urine all over the floor, old food left on the table with maggots in it, and dog food laying about. NASTY!!
    The old lady died a couple months later in the hospital and the "nurse" was arrested and thrown in jail....I think the boyfriend got out now. Not sure. The house was boarded up, after we called the cops about some teenagers over there in the middle of the night carrying things out. (?) So it sat for a long time, filthy and boarded up. Now I guess the state owns the house or something and a contractor has finally taken the job of cleaning it up, which I'm watching them do as I type. It sat that way for months and two other contractors came over, looked at the house and turned down the job. Horrible. Just horrible. They killed that poor old lady.

    Anyway...it's not as relevant as your story, but I just wanted to post it...it sounded a lot like your story. Thank the lord they're finally cleaning that house and bringing the value of our neighborhood back up!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by, Jewel Jade! Always nice to have the support of another Tucsonan.

      After the rescue braggarts moved out of the house down the street, Mr. Landlord reclaimed the property. He was just as afraid of the dog pack as the neighbors were, so I think he was relived that they were finally removed.

      And boy, did he have the cleanup job. Took him four and a half months to get the house back into livable condition.

      There have been two sets of tenants in this place since. First group was a bunch of university students with a penchant for partying. Which came to a screeching halt after the police red-tagged the property.

      Around here, we have a zero tolerance policy for wild student parties. They have a tendency to get out of control, and the whole neighborhood suffers as a result.

      The second and current set of tenants is a quiet family. They've done nothing to call attention to themselves, and we neighbors like that very much.

      Delete
  2. I would hate to have you as a neighbor.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yup, that's me. The mean neighbor.

      Because I keep an eye on things around here. And trust me, the lowlifes don't like that at all. Uh-uh. Not one bit.

      Delete
  3. YQN: Great article. As per a couple of my blog articles, the idiots across the street from I were "rescuers" as well.

    Me being the armchair psychologist (LOL) its apparent to me that they involve themselves in this activity to make up for some shortcoming in themselves. Moreover, "rescuing" gives them an "in" with the "rescuing" sub-culture and elevates their status within that group. It bestows instant status, and who wouldn't want that?? They seem a VERY self-congratulatory group! This leads to the belief that, since they are now morally superior to the rest of us "non-rescuing" rabble, they are above reproach from the rest of us. How dare we criticize ANYTHING they do, them being absolutely wonderful and all?

    If these fools REALLY cared about the well being of pets they would CRACK DOWN ON BREEDING. I don't think they are ever going to do so, because if we ever get a handle on the pet overpopulation problem there would be NO more need for "rescuers". If there is nothing to "rescue" these idiots would have to find something else to do. I'm certain they don't want to do that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think you've hit the nail on the head, Animal Uncontrol.

      A lot of these so-called rescuers have found something that gives their dysfunctional lives meaning. And they're not about to advocate something as sensible as a crackdown on breeding.

      Delete
  4. YQN:

    You got trolled by "anonymous" LOL!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And you know me, I just love smackin' down the trolls. Oh, yes I do.

      Delete