(Back in 2005, just after we moved cross-country, we met a family who lived in the house behind us. With backyards connected, we chatted with them frequently. They were a kind family, and their teenage daughter was very nice to little me and my three-year-old brother. Skip ahead a year: it’s 2006, and we have a new baby brother, as well as a new puppy! The puppy is gentle with the baby and is overall enjoying his toys and treats. The teenage neighbor from behind us knocks on our door. I am in the room when this happens, but my mother answers. Most of this is from my mother’s memory.)
Neighbor: “Hello! Aww, you have a puppy! What’s his name?!”
Mother: *cheery* “Scooby. He’s nine weeks old.”
Neighbor: “He’s so cute! You know, I walk dogs to make a few extra bucks. If you ever need someone to walk him, just let me know!”
Mother: “Thank you! Though I think my kids enjoy walking him around the block with their dad. Thank you for the offer, though!”
Neighbor: “Oh… I mean… okay. But seriously, I’d really like to walk your dog! He’s just so cute, and like I said, I need to make a few extra bucks for school. I charge 15 bucks for every 30 minutes.”
Mother: “Fifteen for thirty minutes?! How long do you expect to walk our dog? That’s a little much.”
Neighbor: “Puppies need a lot of exercise. Geez, you obviously have no idea what to do with a puppy. Let me walk him, and I may consider lowering my price.”
Mother: “Again, we’re fine. Thank you for coming.”
(She’s about to close the door when the neighbor forces it back open.)
Neighbor: “No. No, no, no. You don’t know what you’re doing. Why even have a puppy if you won’t walk it? I’ll call animal control for puppy neglect!”
Mother: “We aren’t neglecting him, though. We just want to walk our puppy on our own. Now, please, leave. You’re scaring my daughter.”
Neighbor: *grunts and leaves*
(My mother closes the door and immediately locks it. Life goes on normally for about an hour or so before we hear a knock on the door. My mother answers once again.)
Mother: “Hello?”
Animal Control: “Ma’am, we received a call that you were neglecting a puppy. This is a serious charge. We’ll have to have a look around.”
Mother: “Animal neglect?! We aren’t harming our puppy, though! We just refused to let our neighbor walk him. We want to walk him ourselves.”
Animal Control: “Ma’am, I’ll need to have a look around, anyway. Just to be sure.”
(My mother lets him in and he notices the abundance of toys, the puppy bed, the filled water bowl, and the semi-filled food bowl. He spots the puppy snuggling next to my baby brother and me as we are watching TV.)
Animal Control: “Hmm, seems to be fine. This is your only pet?”
Mother: *nods*
Animal Control: “All right. I’m sorry for the disturbance, ma’am. I’ll alert the teen and her parents that nothing is in the wrong here.”
Mother: “Thank you.”
(She closed the door the moment he left and instantly ran off. I can only assume she went to tell my dad, as the last thing my mother and I remember of this is my dad telling the teen off one day. I never saw that neighbor again, and her parents would glare at my mother whenever she was out in our backyard. Thankfully, we moved away a few months later and found a new home with kinder, less-intrusive neighbors. We had that puppy until he was ten, and he was happy and loved until the end.)
This story is part of our Neighbor roundup!
Read the next Neighbor roundup story!
Read the Neighbor roundup!
