Saturday, August 30, 2008

"Oh, is this the bad one?"

Just now I saw the new neighbors in their driveway and brought Buddy over to meet them.

B & I had just returned from a lovely shopping spree (PetsMart, the dog bakery, a doggie boutique), in which he made many new human friends and was fairly polite to various dogs and was an all-around model canine.

I gave the new neighbors a bit of cookie to share with Buddy and as Mr. New Neighbor handed B the treat he said, "Oh, is this the bad one?" I laughed nervously and said, "Oh no, they are both very good dogs."

Evidently my neighbor on the other side had dropped by to say hello yesterday and during the conversation pegged Buddy as a bad dog. Here's the thing: in addition to the fact that my neighbor owns a rottweiler that actually KILLED ANOTHER DOG last year--as in pulled out of his leash during a walk and ran into another person's yard and attacked the barking dauchshund there--and that I would never mention such a thing unless someone's dog seemed clearly at risk--in addition to those things, my neighbor knows NOTHING about my domestic challenge with P & D or, really, about my dogs' behavior except that Petunia and his rottie fence-fight, which is why the old neighbor told me the sad story about his dog (because it places my dog at risk). I DID NOT retaliate by telling the new neighbors about the rottie's "badness."

I *think* his whole basis for condemning B is the fact that B was wearing a head-collar the other day and that my neighbor mistook it for a muzzle.

But even if my neighbor did know more about B's story---WTF?!

My new neighbors appear to be NDP (not dog people), which is nice because it means I don't have to worry about P fence-fighting on that side of the yard or about a new dog attempting to tunnel into our yard. But now they've been told to be fearful of one of my dogs, which of course will make them behave fearfully around him, which is completely unhelpful.

People are exhausting.

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