Thoughts on dog poop.

The one thing that I really miss about our old house is our neighbours. We had great people living on both sides of us, they were both older, retired couples who called us "the kids" and kept watch over the house when we were away. They adored the boys (they never really got a chance to know Renee) and often bought them small trinkets when they went on vacation. In fact, both Ethan and Nicholas thought that when you went trick or treating at halloween you were supposed to get candy AND presents from everyone because our neighbours would make gift bags for them.

As much as I love our new place, we don't have the same closeness with the neighbours here. I have met a few people, but for the most part everyone keeps to themselves. We have a set of neighbours on one side of us that we were warned about when we moved in, but I took it with a grain of salt - I just thought that I would form my own opinion when we met them.

They are a young family like us, mom, dad and two kids. They were very nice to us when we moved in. We exchanged pleasantries when we saw each other. But they were odd. Couldn't quite put my finger on it, but we were told by more than one neighbour that they have done their fair share of pissing people off. And over the past few weeks, I can honestly say that I haven't been too impressed either.

This family has a large dog. We don't really see it (and I say "it" because I have no idea if it is male or female) that often, and rarely hear it bark. Barking doesn't bother me, and I love dogs. I have never seen them walk the dog, and I know that this neighbour FREAKS OUT if there is any dog doing it's business on his lawn. So here is the kicker - for the past few weeks, their dog has been crapping on our lawn. Often two or three times A DAY. For the longest time we couldn't figure out who was doing it, but we knew the dog was big - and very regular. When I have to change diapers all day the last thing I want to do is clean up crap from a dog that isn't mine.

We finally figured out it was their dog when I caught him crapping at midnight one night. I wasn't in a position to go over to the house at that time, but I thought I would deal with it in the morning. So I picked up the poop, but it in a bag and put it in their garbage can. For days both Ken and I tried to talk to them, but they weren't home or not answering the door. We took to flinging the poop on their lawn, but that didn't work either. Finally we wrote a note - basically saying that their dog was using our lawn as a toilet, and asking them to pick up his poop. There hasn't been any poop again - and there hasn't been any apology either. Weird. If I got a letter like that in my mailbox, I'd go over and talk to the neighbour, and perhaps even bring a peace offering. I have no idea where the dog is pooping now, they still let it out to roam at night and they still don't walk it. Ken did say he saw one of our other dogless neighbours picking up crap off her lawn yesterday though.