For some excellent advice on how to handle noisy neighbors with or without a barking dog, including the anonymous letter approach, click here:
How to Handle Noisy Neighbors and Their Barking Dogs
If you are a victim of irresponsible dog owners with barking dogs, visit BarkingDogs.net
If you live in Monroe/Union County, NC also see Ordinances and Local Contacts
If you are in a position (e.g., judge, magistrate, law enforcement, city council, county commissioner, etc.) to put an end to nuisance dog barking or to enforce noise nuisance laws but don't view the problem as serious, click here: Why Exposure to Chronic Dog Barking is So Profoundly Debilitating and here: The Deleterious Effect of Exposing People to Noise

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The $$$$ Go Marching By...

This is just a short entry (thank god, you are saying) to vent about how much money my barking dog owning neighbor has cost us...and will cost us.

Keep in mind that we offered to pay for dog training so the dog could be house trained, spend time inside with his family and learn to not bark at everything that moves or doesn't move, but the stupid (and now vindictive) owners, my lovely neighbors, are too lazy, mean and uncaring to spend that much time on the dog even if someone else is willing to pay for it. This would have been the cheap way out for us.

I just got a fence estimate: just under $10,000. This is not including the fees for the attorney who is investigating a discrepancy with the property lines, the surveyor who will eventually mark those lines, and the guys I'll have to hire to clear out some shrubs and trees which are on the property lines. This also does not include the cost of "cat proofing" the fence so my cat can't get out of his yard. I have no idea how much that will cost, but I'm estimating a total of approximately $15,000 for the fence. If it's less, yea.

This fence has become a necessity because my neighbor has now threatened to harm my cat, who has been blamed for the majority of the barking, who is usually in the house when the dog is barking, who usually stays in his own yard when he's outside, and who no one complained about (even though I'd ask if he was bothering any of my neighbors) until I complained about the barking and called the cops. On occasion the cat gets frisky and goes into their driveway to roll in the dirt or hunt for rodents in the shrubs that line the drive, but very rarely. The cat is never out at night and never out when I'm not home, and when he's out I check on him often. And when he's out, the dog is rarely barking at the cat and I know this because I immediately investigate the barking when the cat is outside. On the rare occasions when the dog is actually barking because he sees the cat, I immediately bring the cat inside.

In fact, the cat has provided 2 important services for us and both of our neighbors (and he does so very quietly) - he catches rodents, and keeps stray cats away, of which there are many in our neighborhood. One time I tried to make the cat a full time indoor cat for year. During that year we had numerous stray cats showing up, crapping, spraying, and fighting & howling over mates. My cat hated being indoors all the time, and he developed reoccurring urinary tract infections. Once I began letting him go out again, his urinary tract infections disappeared and so did all the stray cats. My cat is very territorial and doesn't tolerate feline intruders.

Anyway, some time during the middle of summer (2009) my neck and upper back began to hurt so badly from the tension, I had huge knotted up muscles in my neck, headaches had increased in frequency, jaw pain, tinnitis, and the muscles were so tense at the side of my neck that they felt like they were pulling away from my bones, and so I began to think I had a tumor or some other serious disease, and so in October (2009) I began paying for health insurance. I got the lowest monthly payments which meant the highest deductible so I still have to pay for everything until my deductible was met, but at least if I had a serious illness everything would be covered after the deductible. The monthly cost of the health insurance is $228 so that is $1596, to date, which I wasn't spending before.

In November of last year (2009) I began seeing my chiropractor every week due to the severe neck pain I was having which I'd finally realized was due to the tension from listening to the dog bark his shrill piercing bark for hours, day and night, which seriously aggravated an existing problem. I realized every time the dog was barking I was tensing up so much that my shoulders were practically up to my ears. So from November to now, I've spent $40 a week to see the chiropractor. Prior to that I saw the chiropractor once a month for an existing problem. So that is $120 more per month than I would have spent otherwise. So far that's about $720 more, to date, thanks to barking.

Since I was so tense all the time, the chiropratic adjustments were often difficult to achieve and the benefits never last long (especially because the dog would be barking at me as soon as I got home), and so in December I began having a 1 hour massage prior to the chiropratic adjustment. This allowed my muscles to relax so that the chiropractor could actually make the necessary adjustments to my spine. The massage is $60 - $75 dollars each, depending on which massage therapist I go to. This is $60 to $75 more per week than I was spending before. At $60 a week brings it to $1200 for the massage fees, to date, probably more. My neck, by the way, is still killing me.

I've also gone to my physician twice specifically for barking related problems which totaled almost $200. I've been referred to an orthopedic specialist which was $412 for the first new patient visit, and I'm now having physical therapy which I've only had twice so far and only paid $25 per visit, but it will probably end up costing about $300 per week if my health insurance won't cover it. Prescriptions so far have been about $75 (Xanax for my head, Flexeril and an anti inflammatory for my muscles). Thankfully, I haven't started drinking or smoking pot...because then my drug cost would be astronomical.

Keep in mind that my health insurance deductible must be met before my health insurance pays for anything other than yearly basic physicals, and so I've paid for all this out of pocket, and so now I'm up to $4253 that I've spent on medical/health alone in the last 7 months thanks to my neighbors letting their dog bark like a psycho nuisance day & night.

I have 6 more physical therapy appointments and another visit to the ortho doc scheduled. If I'm lucky, my health insurance will cover at least part of the cost of the ortho and physical thereapy. I really haven't made any effort to find out yet, because I'm not up for any more bad news at this point.

I have a physical scheduled, most of which will be covered by the health insurance, however, due to the severe tinnitis which developed sometime during the summer last year (I noticed it increased every time I was working in the yard and the dog was barking...I really couldn't stay out for more than 15 minutes when he was barking, it was so loud and shrill and continuous...I mean I don't know how my neighbors could stand listening to their own dog bark like that...) and a newly formed lump in my back I'll probably have an MRI which is not routine...

Well, I said it was going to be short so I'll keep my promise, but mainly because I'm now having an anxiety attack over all this money I'm spending and will end up spending (I mean I could have taken a European vacation for 6 months for that amount) thanks to my thoughtless neighbors and all the damage they've caused by allowing their dog to be a barking nuisance. Thankfully, the dog is not barking right now but I better get to bed in case he starts in early in the morning. Did I tell you that I caught my neighbor inciting her dog to bark very early the other morning by standing on her screened in porch making some sort of noise that was getting the dog worked up? And she accused my cat of inciting the riot, who was in the house sleeping, and accused me of being a bad neighbor for complaining about the barking...

Good night & I hope you have a peaceful one.