Oh, Crap...Literally

I must be cursed. First it's the barker next door keeping me out of my own yard for 2 years, now it's the smell of dog feces coming from the property behind us where the 2 dogs are tied up.

Maybe it was that old gypsy lady in Spain, back in 2001, who grabbed my hand to read my fortune, then wanted money but I wouldn't give her any because I had no idea what she was saying. I didn't ask her to do it, she just walked up and started palm reading, or something. She got really pissed off...and I've had a lot of lousy things happen since then... Really, I'm not superstitious, but... I should have just given her the damn money... and you know as I was walking away I was thinking that she had just cursed me... Every time shit (no pun intended) happens I think about that.

I swear I can smell dog crap in my house. Today was not an extremely warm day, pleasant really...until I stepped outside. At first I couldn't smell it until I walked out behind the garage, which sort of comes out about half way across the yard, half way to the back of the property. It just kind of hit me in the face like I walked into a toxic miasma. I had to go inside pretty quickly because, and this might surprise some folks, I don't deal well with the overwhelming smell of dog shit. It kinda makes me want to puke.

Later on, I stepped out of my back door...but only because I absolutely had to go outside...and I could smell it immediately and it had even cooled off considerable. Now that's bad. I had the door open just briefly, but then I thought I could smell it in the house.

A few weeks ago I spent some time in Charleston, back when the temps were up. The day I came home was really warm. When I walked in the house I could swear I smelled shit so I went about cursing my cats looking for cat poop. My neighbor (the only good one) had taken care of my cats while I was gone and so their litter boxes were very clean (she's really good about tidying up after the cats). But I could swear there was poop in the house...but I couldn't find any so I just figured I was being paranoid. The next day I went outside, and I realized where the poop smell was coming from. Yep.

I've asked them twice now to clean up the poop and told them I can smell it all the way at my back door... which is a good distance from the property line...so that tells you how bad it is. And, yes, if I have my back door open or open the windows at the back of the house...which are usually the only ones I open due to the amount of traffic noise in front...the smell travels right on inside. Nice. I dread to think what it's going to be like as the summer progresses...hotter...more humidity...

It's no wonder some of my cats have become so neurotic in the last couple of years. They are surrounded by dogs barking and dog stink.

To top it off, if one can do that, those dogs that are tied up back there are surrounded by their own turd piles. I mean dozens of them. The dogs can barely move without stepping in shit...their own. When I went over there the other day to inform them of the foul odor drifting over from their property, I had to tip toe through dog crap. I cut through the cyprus trees at the property line and the easiest spot to get through is right by the dogs. There was so much crap around those dogs...that is really sad. Tied up and wallowing in your own shit. I really feel sorry for those dogs. They are always so happy to see me and I can hardly stand to look at them 'cause it's so sad (not to mention stinky).

I don't understand these folks at all. How could you live with the smell of dog poop fuming around your home, you pets wading in their own feces, and your dogs barking like psychotic lunatics?

Today I looked all through the City of Monroe Code of Ordinances and did not find one damn thing about cleaning up your dog's poop. Not one. Nor does it mention anything about providing proper shelter for your dogs, providing food & water...essentially nothing to protect the dog or the public from the dog's irresponsible owners.

I looked under Title IX: GENERAL REGULATIONS, Chapter 91: ANIMALS and did not find one thing about dog poop odor nuisances.

I looked under Title IX: GENERAL REGULATIONS, Chapter 93: PUBLIC HEALTH NUISANCE, and found this:

§ 93.03 DECLARATION OF A PUBLIC HEALTH NUISANCE.

The following conditions shall constitute a nuisance to public health or safety and shall be prohibited within the City's jurisdiction:

(A) Neglect of property. It shall be unlawful for any person to endanger the public health, safety, and welfare through the neglect of property by causing or allowing the accumulation of solid waste or unsightly litter, waste products causing the existence of foul odors, dead animals, unsecured appliances, building material, hazardous waste, or potentially dangerous devices to be discarded, abandoned, or remain on or emanate from any such property, or to cause or allow the accumulation of solid waste or unsightly litter, waste products causing the existence of foul odors, dead animals, unsecured appliances, building material, construction and demolition material, hazardous waste, or potentially dangerous devices to be discarded, abandoned, or remain on or emanate from public property or other private property, vacant lots, ponds, streams, or bodies of water or banks thereof.

Then I also looked under Title V: PUPLIC WORKS, Chapter 55: SOLID WASTE, and found this:

§ 55.02 GENERAL REGULATIONS.

(A) It shall be unlawful for any person to endanger the public health, safety and welfare through the neglect of property by causing or allowing unsightly garbage, weeds and grass, yard waste, foul odor, dead animals, junk, unsecured appliances or potentially dangerous devices to remain on or emanate from property, or to discard or abandon or cause such on public property, private property, vacant lots or any pond, stream or body of water or banks thereof within the city limits.

and this:

§ 55.10 REMOVAL OF DEAD ANIMALS, ASHES, CONTAGIOUS DISEASE MATERIAL, HYPODERMIC INSTRUMENTS AND HAZARDOUS WASTE.

(E) Hazardous Waste. It shall be unlawful to place hazardous waste in any container for disposal except as follows:

     (1) Paint cans shall have lids removed and contain no wet paint. Kitty litter or sand may be added to solidify material for collection.
     (2) Soiled kitty litter shall be enclosed in double plastic bags and securely tied prior to placing the bag in rollout cart at curbside for disposal.

and under the same Title V, § 55.01 DEFINITIONS.

HAZARDOUS WASTE. Potentially dangerous by-products which cannot be handled, treated, or disposed of without special precautions. Hazardous waste includes ignitable, corrosive, reactive, and toxic wastes such as acetone, gasoline, industrial metal, alkaline cleaners, acids, batteries, cyanide, chlorine, arsenic, pesticide wastes, paint, caustics, infected materials, offal, fecal matter (human and animal), and explosives.
 
Notice it says how to dispose of kitty litter, but not one word about how to dispose of dog crap, which would fall under a hazardous waste...
 

What's wrong with the City of Monroe???

bag o crap

Maybe I should just purchase an SCBA because I don't think the city is going to help out here. I called the Monroe Police Department a couple of days ago and asked to talk with someone in Code Enforcement. The lady was really nice...but...and this is really scary...she knew nothing about any dog or animal ordinances. She said, "All we usually deal with is tall grass and building codes."

What about the rest of the Monroe Code of Ordinances???

Gee. I wish my neighbors had tall grass. At least it's quiet, doesn't smell bad, and I kind of think tall grass looks cool when it's blowing in the wind. .

How Long is Too Long...

Update: I talked to my other neighbor's and they said their dog died in the early winter of 2007. That means Harley arrived as a puppy during the summer of 2007...

I've been trying to figure out how old the Annoying One is, because this will tell me how long I've been forced to listen to his barking and just when I began to slide toward the edge of noise trauma darkness.

Harley was just a wee pup of about 2-3 months when they first brought home the bundle of joy...and he was already indulging in psycho barking although he was much cuter then...visually that is; make no mistakes here - the horrendous sound that comes out of that Schnoodle was never even close to being cute, even back then. I know my neighbors well enough to know they have no dog training skills...and I know that they have no clue that they have no clue...and I knew immediately that I was in BIG trouble and began trying to calculate how long Harley would live...and if I could survive that long.

I know they didn't have him when my very first cat died on November 2, 2005, they didn't have him when I got my shelter cat in December of 2005, and I know they didn't have Harley when my other neighbor's dog died, but I'm having difficulty remembering if she died in 2006 or 2007. I just remember it was a cold and misty day, so it was either late winter/early spring or late fall/early winter. She had been tethered in their yard for about 6 years...a very sad affair and another story for another blog...and I remember my relief at her death was short lived because next thing I knew my other lovely neighbors came home from the beach with Harley. Yea. That was in the Summer of either '06 or '07.

So maybe it hasn't been 4 years that I've been being barked at. Maybe it's only been 3ish. What also makes it difficult to remember, even though the Annoyance started right in immediately, on day one, with his annoying ruckus, was that in the beginning Harley was inside quite often and so I was not always assaulted like I was later on and am now, although, believe me, if he was outside we all knew about it.

So, despite what one of Harley's humans told me when I asked him last fall how old Harley was (he said about 6 but I knew that was not true...let's refer back to Dr. Mixon's noise trauma chart about the thinking process), Harley is getting close to either 3 or 4 years old.

Either way, this barking business has been going on too long. My advice, for what it's worth in my completely batty, nervous wreck, anxiety ridden state, to anyone who has just begun to have a barking neighbor - don't wait, nip it in the bud, don't wait thinking the humans will quiet the dog because they won't, don't keep quiet so as to not ruin the neighborly relationship because if your neighbors allow their dog to disrupt your life the neighborly relationship is non existant anyway, and the longer you wait the more stressed out you'll get, and you'll become as wacked out and miserable as Yours Truly.

Off Topic but Dog Relevant

Correction to the info in this blog entry: as of today there are now 3 dogs tied up back there, and one is a small puppy. Or maybe that poor puppy has been there the whole time. Who knows any more.

I admit this is not my most eloquent blog entry; this entry is more just a rant without much style. Not to get off the topic of Harley the yapper here, but back to those 2 poor dogs that were recently tied up in the yard by my neighbors behind me because this crap is driving me crazy...living surrounded by so much animal neglect that  no one else around here seems to be bothered by.

I walked out back the other day when it was pouring down rain, Christmas Day I think it was, with the sole purpose of checking them out, and both of those dogs were sitting in the rain next to the feeble "shelters" those freaks provided for them. I don't think those dogs have even 5 feet of chain or rope or whatever is keeping them in bondage. It's almost as sad as being driven batty by a barking yapper...well, actually sadder because the dogs are powerless to do anything about their situation.

Now this is in the far back corner of their yard, right in front of the spot where the creeps cut away the branches of the shrubs that divide our properties so I have a birds eye view of this horror when I walk out behind my garage. I know, I know, why walk out of my way to see the poor things? Well, it is my yard so it's not really out of my way, and as the Homo sapien with the evolved brain (or a good Christian if that was the case), either way I do have a moral responsibility to be humane to animals, to recognize negligence and other abuses, and to try to rescue animals that are being abused by low-lifes whose brains haven't kept up with evolution but who, none-the-less, possess the appearance of the species Homo sapien.

I was really tempted to call the cops, but what are they going to do? Call the animal control, who might confiscate the dogs and then euthanize them in the gas chamber along with 100s of other dogs and cats? Well, animal control probably wouldn't do that since they won't even collect a dog that is running loose scaring people or almost causing auto accidents by running to and fro across Concord Ave., but I, on the other hand, would probably just be put on the list of complainers and get blown off...again. Odd how it is that the authorities would ignore the concerned citizen or treat them like they are the bad guy, and then also ignore the animal abusers and allow them to continue on their merry way even though they are actually breaking the law (see the Union County Animal Control Ordinance page 93, #2 about proper shelter and protection from the weather elements). What are my tax dollars paying them for, anyway?  And why do we even have the animal ordinances if my tax dollars aren't enforcing them? And, I can honestly add that the ordinances are rather out dated since the animal control now falls under the jurisdiction of the Sherrif's Department rather than the Health Department, as it formerly was when these ordinances came into effect, so why are my tax dollars also paying the lawmakers if they are not keeping the laws that the law enforcers aren't enforcing up to date???

But back to the 2 tied up dogs. Like I said, this happened before back there with the puppy that had no water in mid summer, and I only foresee terrible things for these 2 unfortunate canines and I just hope they don't break loose one day and bite someone or kill a pet, especially like me or one of my cats since we are closest. Normally when I go out back to feed Kitty those dogs start barking at me (thus also getting Harley the yapper going) but that day the dogs didn't even look up when I walked back there making noise, they didn't look up when I whistled, and they barely looked up when I raised my voice and started calling out for Kitty...the semi-feral homeless cat that I had neutered, vaccinated for rabies and distemper, and feed every day who has taken shelter in the shed at the side of my garage. If Kitty could talk he'd probably say that even though he had the crap scared out of him when he was trapped and then had his balls cut off it's OK because at least someone cares about him.

OH, CRAP :-(

Today I noticed that the neighbors behind me on Charlotte Ave. have tied up 2 dogs in their yard. This has only happened in the last day, and the reason I found out is because the dogs started barking at me tonight when I went out back to feed my semi-feral (neutered) cat and they weren't out there last night. Of course when they began barking, the psycho next door started barking. Great. GRRRRRRR....

It looks like they are older puppies, pit bull types,. They don't even have proper dog houses, just regular traveling crates with holes in the sides. The dogs would have no place to even stay dry.

This is not the first time. Those people have had other dogs tied up, and one time I called the cops because it was a puppy, howling, no water, in the middle of the summer. Of course, the cops did nothing...well, they treated me like I was the criminal but they did nothing for the poor dog. When the dog got older it would get loose and come into my yard and chase my cats. Then it suddenly disappeared one day.

I am surrounded by horrible, awful people. It's just one thing after the other, and it is making me sick.

I'm going to contact Dogs Deserve Better and have them send one of their letters to these freaks.