(I am telling this story because it’s the wildest thing that’s happened to me in terms of neighbors and owning a pet; sorry it’s long. I used to live outside of a small town, in a small neighborhood made up of about 6 houses with about 1-3 acres of land for each house. the town was across a bridge and about 3 minutes away, and the other direction was just more houses and more land that gets more rural.
We had a loveable Chinese Shar-Pei/Pitbull mix named Molly; she was gentle, sweet and belly rubs were her most favorite things next to treats. due to where we lived, my parents and brother rarely worried bout her getting hurt, so we let her come and go as she pleased. all the neighbors knew and loved her and would give her treats when she came to visit them. There were two other dogs she ran with in our neighborhood: a golden retriever named Sam, and a mutt named Honey.
I stress my beloved Mollys kindness because of what happens in this story. There was one house that would get new tenants once every couple of years; for the longest time, there was a family who lived there. we didn’t know them very well, other than that the family was your stereotypical southern redneck family: they rarely came outside, the parents were obese and heavy smokers, and cigarette boxes and empty two-liter bottles littered their property along with beer cans and broken glass. the three kids they had rarely came outside, and i never hung out with them. They knew Molly well, and not once did she cause them any problems; I assume Molly went on their property, but the family never brought it up to us and never complained about anything despite knowing Molly belonged to my family. in fact, the kids would often play with her during the rare times they actually came outside. I hate to talk so rudely of the family, but they were the real epitome of “white trash”. they were never too nice to anyone in the neighborhood, to begin with, and this story really only solidified the void between us and them.
This happened a while ago and from my dad’s point of view for the most part, so i only know what i say here. one day the redneck matriarch somehow gets ahold of my dad and flat out tells him Molly attacked her little dog. None of the family saw Molly attack her dog, and the little dog has a small bite on his back leg but the vet the family takes him to confirms no serious damage was inflicted on him and he’s perfectly fine after a week. naturally, the family wants US to pay for the vet bills. we have to start chaining Molly up because the family is really demanding about getting animal control out or just shooting her if they see her on their property again, getting her euthanized and pressing charges against us; however, Molly manages to break free of every chain -mind you, she’s about 60 lbs in this story- that we put her on in some way or another. After a week of us basically trying to defend Molly from this family and trying to keep her in our yard, my mom decides one day to keep her inside where it’s nice and cool and she doesn’t have to be stuck on a chain all day. she’s a good dog and knows not to get into stuff.
That was… a huge, smelly, and messy mistake. My mom, my brother, and i get home after being out together. it’s only been 4 hours at most since we left Molly in the house alone. We come inside to see the blinds ripped down, three big puddles of pee, one MASSIVE pile of crap, and the rug chewed on. She somehow got on the kitchen table, messed up the table cloth, then got onto the countertop; from there she went across the stove and the back of the sink to the windows behind the sink, knocking down the curtains and the orchids… it still astounds me that this 60 lb dog managed to get on the kitchen table AND the countertop behind the sink. It legitimately looked like a robber ransacked our whole house, but the kitchen was the worst.
That same day, the lady’s dog is chased around the yard and almost attacked again. now we have proof that it wasn’t our dog; it actually turns out to be Sam who attacked the dog the first time, and the one who was chasing her dog the day ours let us know what she thought of us keeping her chained up.
In the end, the neighbors gave a half-assed “Sorry we accused your dog of attacking ours and wanted animal control to come pick her up and euthanize her”, and the people who owned Sam had to give him away after he killed the family cat and kept getting out. Our family dog was able to run free again, and the family actually just…. vanished soon after this took place. we never saw or heard any moving trucks, it just happened that one day we noticed their vehicles gone, their mail piling up in their mailbox, and the litter stopped piling up.
Weirder still is that we got new neighbors a couple of years later in a different house in our neighborhood, and Molly became the woman’s unofficial therapy dog. Molly really fell in love with them, and when they moved a year or so later after moving in, they asked my dad if they could take her with them, and he agreed. Molly, You’d be pretty old by now, probably 13 or 14; you probably aren’t alive anymore, but if you are i hope you’re living your best life. you were the funniest dog I’ve ever had.
