Tickets and Tauntings

Lies about the barking continued for days. "He's been barking for tow hours," was the extent of the information, and upon daily review of the recorder, there was never more than 45 minutes of sound. Some days there was no barking whatsoever.

One Tuesday morning the expected text came early, at 9 a.m. "He's barking" was the extent of it. My husband called nice neighbor and asked her to put the dogs in the house and close the dog door, locking them in. By 9:20 the dogs had been locked by nice neighbor. About 30 minutes after that, our trusty sound recorder picked up a woman's voice quietly calling, "Pippin...Pippin!"

We had a visit from animal control that day. At 11 a.m. Mrs. Crazy Next Door Neighbor called animal control, told them Pippin had been barking for two hours, and they responded. They always respond, we've been told, even if the calls are false.

We were issued another citation for that call, resulting in a fine unless we decided to fight the charge. Yes, please.