First Day Of Spring

Today is the first day of Spring. It hit above 80° today. It's March for crying out loud. Not that I'm complaining all that much. I mean, our winter was really light compared to last year where we got a full on blizzard where military vehicles were getting stuck trying to rescue people who had tried to go to work from their cars. Hell, it was the lightest winter I can remember in a long time. That's really odd for around here. But with Spring comes certain annoyances. I'm not talking about the heat or bugs or anything along those lines. I'm talking about kids running around the sidewalk in between the apartment buildings screaming like they are being killed with no parents around or parents sitting around drinking and not caring. Thanks for that. I know kids need to have fun outside but you could at least make sure they aren't running around like that and annoying everyone. Take them to a park once and a while! It's not like we don't have any around here. Gods.

Then, there are the other dogs in the apartment complex. There are currently two dogs that Master and I can just not stand at all. One lives on the end of this building. All that fucker does is bark when his owners aren't home. He does not shut up. Ever.

Now there is another dog at the end of the other building. (There are two apartment complexes that face each other with only a sidewalk in between them.) This one not only barks constantly but the owner will just tie the dog up to the porch and go back inside. This wouldn't be a big deal if the dog knew how to behave. But this one will bum rush the sidewalk and the fucker can almost put his front paws on it. That's way too close. Master and I check to see if the dog is out there before we take our dog. If he is out when we take our pup he bum rushes us and our dog's first instinct is to get in between us and the other dog, being protective. Thankfully because we keep him close to us with his leash nothing has happened. Our dog is not aggressive but with this other dog's body language I'm not sure if he is or if he is just playing in a very forward manner.

Our dog isn't perfectly trained or anything like that. Trust me, I know. But he knows to listen for the most part. And we are responsible dog owners. We don't leave him unattended outside. We keep him on a leash at all times when we're outside. And we do everything we can to make sure he behaves. It's been a lot of work because when we first got him he would pull whenever he saw someone or try to pop up to say hello. He's better now. He still gets excited and what not but he's a lot better about it. He still has his moments but he's a good dog and we continue to work with him constantly.

The other thing about the dog that is kiddy corner from us is that even when he is inside his apartment if you walk by, especially with a dog, he will pop up on the sliding glass toy and pound on it with his front paws while barking so loud I'm surprised his owners aren't deaf. You almost think he's about to come through the glass if he keeps throwing himself at it like that.

The first dog we had barked a lot. I mean a mouse would fart and he would go off. (Doorbells were apparently his version of an alarm system because even if it was just on the TV he would bark like people were trying to break in.)

At one point we did get a letter from our landlord asking us to lock him up when we're not home because he would pop up on the glass. We didn't know this and so we immediately started putting him in our bedroom when we weren't home. After that no problems. If he started barking loudly while we were home we told him to be quiet and he would settle down. He got time outs and what not. We were being responsible.

Our current dog? Quietest dog ever. He hardly ever barks. It actually makes me jump when he does bark because I'm not used to hearing it and we've had him for two years now.

So, apparently when we had our first dog someone called and complained which led to the letter. Now it's time to talk to the landlord a little about this annoying fucking dog kiddy corner from our apartment.

I love animals as does Master. We realize that we live in a complex that allows dogs, obviously, and that every dog is different. But we don't really blame the dogs. We blame the owners. If you can't be a responsible pet owner you shouldn't have any.