The neighbor rant
Today is Monday. What I am going to relate to you is how my Thursday unfolded.
As I have mentioned before, Thursday is home school Co-Op day. SmockDaddy takes Birdie and Princerella to school and comes home for a few minutes before heading out the door again with the others, minus Bairno. Co-Op starts at 8:30-ish and it’s just down the road. Princerella’s summer IEP meeting was scheduled for 10.15 Thursday morning. I had plans to run a few errands with Bairno before heading to the school for the IEP meeting. As I walked out the door to get loaded in the car I noticed (in that not paying attention way) a large white truck parked around the corner of my neighbor’s house. This neighbor’s house is caddy-cornered from ours and sits on a corner lot. I only take the time to write that so you can picture with your mind’s eye the lack of attention I gave the truck, only that I noticed the white vehicle out of my peripheral vision as I walked out to our car. I paid it no direct attention. Until . . .
As I loaded Bairno into his seat to buckle him I heard the truck start and pull out onto the street, my street, to leave the neighborhood. Except for certain times of the day like before work, after work and carpool line hours our street is relatively quiet, not much traffic at all. I happened to look up as the truck was past our house and realized it was the Animal Control truck. My heart and stomach switched places and I almost threw up. I just knew it had something to do with a cat of ours. Call it intuition I guess. I just had a sickening feeling about seeing that truck and putting it all together with where it had been parked. I called Topper and he wouldn’t come. He comes when we call him. I called again and again. My neighbor was in his yard and he just looked up at me and went right on about his business of trimming every blade of grass to the exact same height with the scissors. Not exactly, but he is a bit anal about his yard.
Quick history lesson:
Last year when Topper broke his hip, the first one not the second one, we had found him in a neighbor’s bushes. I had seen him a few times running from our neighbors Azalea bushes where he had a private sleeping spot so we decided to ask her if we could look for him there. We knew he had injured himself, but he had gone off before we had a crate available to put him in. We knocked on her door and she knew exactly where he was probably hiding. She showed us and told us that she often finds him asleep there when she is gardening. I apologized for that and asked her point blank if that was a problem. I told her we would make other arrangements for him if he was a neusance. She said not to worry about it at all. She said she thought he was a great cat and he was very sweet to her. she did tell us that her husband did not like cats, but not to worry Topper didn’t cause any problems. I apologized again and thanked her for her help with finding him.
Back to the Present:
I called SmockDaddy at his office as I had already locked the front door and buckled in Bairno and was running a bit late. I told him that I was aware that I was probably panicking but would he call Animal Control and ask if they had just picked up a black cat from our street. He made some calls while I ran to our vet’s office to let them know what had happened and what my worries were and that I was probably just over reacting. But Topper does not wear a collar and he does not have an ID chip in him either.
They explained how things were handled with A.C. and that I shouldn’t worry. As long as Topper was current on his shots there would only be a $10.00 nuisance fine. SmockDaddy talked to the Mr. Animal Control Guy and got the scoop. Mr. A.C. was definitely at our neighbor’s house closing down a trap he had set earlier that week. There were reports of rain and the A.C. office is closed on the weekends so their standard practice for both occasions is to close all traps to prevent neglect or cruelty to the animals. I respect that and am grateful for that attitude. Mr. A.C also told SmockDaddy that he had been called out to set a trap for a black cat that was killing birds in their back yard. Mr. A.C. asked specifically if they knew who the cat belonged to and he was told no by Neighbor-Jerk. (Name calling - shame on me.) Mr. A.C. set the trap in the back yard where he was told it was good. Mr. A.C. asked again if Neighbor-Jerk knew who the cat belonged to. Neighbor-Jerk said no again. See there is another A. C. policy that says if the neighbor knows who the animal belongs to then he is encouraged to first talk to the owner about the nuisance and see if a resolution can be reached. If the neighbor does not feel comfortable speaking with the owner then Mr. A.C. will do it on behalf of the neighbor placing the complaint.
It is worth noting that there are four black cats that live in our neighborhood. Since Topper had an OFA on both of his hips he has gained back enough strength to jump on to the top bunks of the beds to snuggle with his children, but speed? He does not have any. He barely jogs when he tries to run. So catching birds and squirrels is but a dream to him now.
SmockDaddy told these facts to Mr. A.C. to explain that we were worried that Topper would get caught when he was not the guilty party. We also said we would be bringing Topper in so that he didn’t get caught in the trap. We explained that we were particularly worried since Topper sleeps in the front Azalea bushes. Mr. A.C. asked if they had ever told us that was a problem for them and we told them the story of where we found him when he broke his hip and the conversation we had with Mrs. Neighbor-Jerk. Mr. A.C. then told SmockDaddy that when he returned to close down the trap on Thursday morning the trap had been moved to the front yard, right where Topper sleeps in their Azalea bushes sometimes.
So now all kinds of lights and bells and whistles were going off in all our heads about our neighbors and their passive aggressive behavior. SmockDaddy got concerned that Mr. Neighbor-Jerk would reopen the trap on his own and catch Topper by himself. Apparently Mr. A.C. was worried too. SmockDaddy was going to go over and talk to them about it and tell them that had they just asked we would have kept Topper out of their yard. Mr. A.C. said that he would take care of it and go pick up the trap so that Mr. Neighbor-Jerk wouldn’t be able to reopen it on his own. He begged SmockDaddy not to go over there as he had seen too many neighbor wars over pets and that he would rather remain the arbitrator in the situation.
Topper sauntered home from his afternoon sunning and we brought him inside. Where he will stay from now on. While he has his choice of beds to sleep on and warm bodies to curl up with he has been banished to a life as a caged criminal for a while.
It’s complicated a bit. Remember these cuties? Well, so Miss Samantha doesn’t decide to haul off her kittens in the middle of the night where they can be raised with no human contact and wonder off creating more wild cats for our neighbors to love she has been banned to living inside in a crate. Yes, she gets outside as she requests, but at night she gets locked down with the kittens. As any good mama cat would do she is protecting her babies with great vim and vigor as she will not allow Topper anywhere near them or even in the same room as them. The next five weeks are going to be tough with the cat corralling. Keeping Topper and Sam et al separated. Neither one is happy the other one is in. And poor Topper has to be kept in the kennel while the children are running in and out of the house most of the sunshine hours. the little ones are not very good at being able to keep him in when they open the door to go out.
Samantha and kittens definitely need a home to go to and everyone has known that for a while (I’ve even found a propective home for Samantha once the kittens are weaned and she has been spayed). Topper though is making us very sad; it’s hard knowing how unhappy he is and that he wants to be outside in the afternoons sunning away these nice Spring days. It’s not fair to him. We have prepared the children for the possibility that we we might not be able to keep him.
That’s it? “Neighbor-Jerk?” That’s the best you can come up with? Ok, I know, you are holding back. But that neighbor deserves so much more. Poor Topper.
KP - I’m holding waaaaaaay back. I even left out the details of some of the phone conversations SmockDaddy had with them.
Blurg. That makes me so crazy…the passive aggressive neighbor. Your neighbor reminds me of our old neighbor who said their pit bull, who chased our children and snarled at our dog regularly, was justified when it bit CancerMan last summer.
It does sound like animal control in your town is very nice.
I am so glad to hear that Topper came home. Out of all of this at least your sweet kitty is safe. Jerks will be jerks and there isn’t usually much that we can do to change that.