Pippin,Supposed Destroyer of All Things Peaceful

Our dear friend had just received confirmation that her visa had been approved and she was moving to London. The UK, however, would not accept her dog, Pippin, because he is mostly Staffordshire terrier and thus considered a bully breed.

We had agreed that when the time came for Raven to go, we would adopt Pippin. And on December 30, the time came.

Pippin and his mama flew from Boston to Phoenix; apart from his initial shyness around our two other dogs, Mulligan and O'Malley, Pippin quickly became a member of the pack.

During Pippin's first weekend with us, my husband and I stayed close to home, not sure how the dogs were getting along and not sure of Pippin's temperament. Saturday night we had dinner at a friend's house, and Sunday we were home the entire day except for a 45 minute span when we went out to grab some lunch.

During that lunch, our neighbors called us. Not the crazy ones, a pair of nice ones who we adore. They said the police were at our house. We immediately drove home, and at the same time, our nice neighbor walked to our house to talk to the officer. The officer explained that someone had reported excessive barking coming from our house. Nice neighbor explained he knew our dogs and had serious doubts that it was our dogs who were barking. Since we weren't home at the time, the officer left a notice and went on his way.

We turned onto our street just as the officer pulled away. Nice neighbor indicated that the officer had left a notice. On our door we found two notices. One from the night before and one from just then. A call to the police the following day revealed several calls. I later located this police record. RP = Reporting Party.

07:44:57 01/02/10 10-00073 ANIMAL PROBLEM W PARAISO LN; ACACIA ACT RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO THIS ADDRESS THERE IS A HUGE DOG BARKING...AND THE RP IS SICK. THE RP DOES NOT WANT ANYONE STOPPING BY THEIR 42.

07:54:14 01/02/10 10-00074 Noise W PARAISO LN; ACACIA E1 UTL RP AT THIS ADDRESS WANTS TO COMPLAIN THAT THE DOG NEXT DOOR KEEPS BARKIMG OFF AND ON..RP DOES NOT WANT CONTACT BECAUSE THEY ARE SICK

21:13:53 01/02/10 10-00097 ANIMAL NOISE W PARAISO LN; ACACIA CLO RP REFUSED SAYING DOGS ARE BARKING AT THIS ADDRESS

14:47:08 01/03/10 10-00124 Barking Dog W PARAISO LN; ACACIA CLO RP SAYS THAT THE DOG AT THIS 42 HAS BEEN BARKING NON STOP FOR 24 HRS.

They were home sick, they told the police, and didn't want anyone to take a report, just wanted to complain. Poor crazy next door neighbors. But three calls in one day? And barking for 24 hours? Since we were home nearly the entire day, that sounds like a false police report to me. Also, please note description of "huge dog." This comes up again later.