Living in the New Barrio
When we first moved into our new home, things were wonderful with all the neighbors. Then our East neighbor’s pit bull began jumping the wall and taking dumps in our yard and peeing on our house. Then when I’d be in the yard with our new puppy, after this other dog was supposedly secured so he couldn’t get over the wall, he’d get over and chase me and my new puppy. This is when the problems began… with THIS neighbor.
Eventually, the wall was secured with a structure that was against our Housing Association rules and looked like crap. It was made of 2×4s, chain link fence and a corrugated tin roof and it was poorly constructed and an eyesore. It kept the dog from out of our yard however. The people eventually had the dog taken away for biting someone (go figure) which we had nothing to do with.
Our dog grew up, and this neighbor, bitter about losing his dog began constantly griping about our dog barking during the days (for the short periods of time he’d actually be outside) and harassing us about shutting the dog up. His kids began poking our dog with sticks and hitting him from atop the wall. We told the neighbor we would press charges if it continued and he didn’t stop it. Whenever I tried to sneak and get a photo of the kids doing it, they’d run off.
They began claiming toys in our yard (that belonged to us or our dog) were theirs. Their kids lied about everything. That’s our ball. That’s our frisbee. That’s our dog’s chew toy. It was ridiculous. And each and every time, the father of the house would say to us, “Go ahead and keep it. I’ll let you have it.”
It happened again today. The neighbor kid comes over banging on the door, the kid who we know to be a chronic liar, and said he lost his red ball in our yard and could we throw it back. I said if I found it I would. We went out there, and the only red ball out there was our dog’s PetSmart tennis ball. The father said, “That’s it.” My Husband and I are like, “No, this is our tennis ball that belonged to our dog” (Who’s now dead by the way). And the neighbor proceeds to argue that his kid threw that ball into our yard. My husband said that our son throws things over the walls all the time and that we don’t always know about it and again said that it was ours. I couldn’t see the details, but said to the neighbor for verification purposes, “Ours has faded doggie footprints and a faded PetSmart logo on it”. He turned it around in his hand and said, “Well I go to PetSmart too. But you can have it. Go ahead, I’ll give it to you, it’s not a big deal.” I could feel my blood begin to boil as I took it and looked, and sure enough it had paw prints and the faded Petsmart logo. I just took it and walked away. How dare he. My dead dog’s ball, and this pig has the audacity to tell me I can have my own ball?
If it were just another cheap ball, or my dog weren’t dead, I’d have let it go and gotten ourselves a new one. But this was my dog’s ball. MY DEAD DOG’S ball. So once again, this neighbor next door, thinks he has the upper hand by telling me to keep something that I own in the first place. I bet they have our soccer ball too. But there is no way they’ll admit it. Just because something ends up in your yard when you have a house next door with kids and pets that isn’t yours, doesn’t make that item yours. What is this finders keepers thing? We’re adults here, have some friggin integrity.
We just bought my son a tricycle. It’s a gorgeous trike with a retro feel to it and is shiny and every kid’s dream at that age. We made sure to bring it inside for the night. Gods forbid these dishonest neighbors might actually steal it right out of our yard! I wouldn’t doubt they would.
The audacity some people have really irks me. I don’t let much get to me, but this incident today just… well frankly, it freaking pissed me off. I maintained my composure in front of the neighbor and all his guests, but I’m so mad I could spit at him.
