Over the fence

I may have mentioned that we have neighbor dogs on both sides of us. In the other half of our ZLL home is a family with three daughters and two dogs (see Retriever Convention photo below). Our lot is bounded by a privacy fence around our yards and garden plots, a privacy panel between our decks, and then a chainlink fence splitting the yards in two. So we are somewhat communal in our backyard living. On the opposite side of our yard is the next lot with another ZLL, and the side closest to us (owned by my landlord) has a young military family with a couple of boys and with two dogs, I think. I've never seen the one dog. The other dog is a German Shepherd Dog of whom I see far too much because he hangs over the top of the 6-foot privacy fence (there are doghouses on their side that he jumps up on). Something about that house, I dunno - when the landlord lived there, her American Bulldog would leap from there onto my shed roof and bark into my bedroom window for hours.

So the typical scene is that on our side of the hedge, Hunter will go out, Angel and Princess will approach the fence and some play will ensue. For approximately eight seconds until the Fun Police next door begins his disturbance. Or sometimes the retrievers will bark at the GSD and he bark back, and Hunter walk outside, think 'this is nothing I need to get into' and turn around and come back in.

I don't pay the GSD much mind except when I have guest dogs, because he gets very agitated and one of these days he's going to figure out that actually he can scale the fence without much difficulty. So I just try to keep it cool and sometimes I brandish my poop shovel just to make him hop down on his side. And I will say calmly once in a while, "Oh, give it a rest."

Way back there when I mentioned the daughters? They're 10, 7 and 2. And where they've picked this up, I'm not sure, but it cracks me up because if I step out onto my deck they will call "Hey, neighbor!" They know my name, but it's always Neighbor.

Tonight I had just brought a very bouncy Hunter in from a play date with the girls, as Kaiser (I don't really know his name) began his reading of the riot act. And I hear a young voice call past my yard and beyond: "Hey, neighbor dog! Give it a rest!"

My work here is done.