(no subject)

[pacificpikachu]

The kittens went back to their foster home, ahh! They were so cute and fun. ;; I kinda fell for one of the calicos who was SUPER friendly, I would've adopted her in a second if I could, but I promised mom no more cats when Princess died, so... :( Oh well, it was fun having them for the weekend! I took a ton of pictures before they left this afternoon, so I'll post those once I get them uploaded.

Yesterday was so much fun! I went to the dog show early in the morning and enjoyed looking at the gorgeous border collies and corgis though I think my dogs are even more gorgeous personally, haha and taking a bunch of pictures!

Then I went home and took a nap, and picked up Sue and went down to Sac-Anime! I'm so glad I did, it was a ton of fun. :D

We went to the dealer's room, I got Ampharos and Togekiss UFO plush for really cheap, wandered around with my (as usual) VERY well-received Umbreon costume, watched Masquerade (which was surprisingly good and entertaining and not overly long), went to the Mari Iijima concert and was extremely impressed with her songwriting and singing (and that she's a vegetarian/going vegan, too!), went to a hilarious video game tournament, went to the dance for a while, and finally went home.

Sac-Anime used to be kind of not a "real" convention to me, but I'm pleasantly surprised to report that it has grown into quite a respectable con! I may even see about staying in the hotel next time. :D The hotel it's in now is beautiful and perfect for a con, with large courtyards, and perhaps it was a little cramped for the huge crowds that showed up but it felt much more legitimate there than at the Scottish Rite Center. There were good events, a bunch of people, and a very festive and fun real convention atmosphere. Wonderful! Now I'm looking forward to the next Sac-Anime, as well as Yaoi-Con of course. It was a great time, it's nice that the only con within an hour of where I live has become a respectable convention instead of the kind of "Meh" experience it used to be.

Mom and I are having fairly minor but annoying issues with our neighbor. I don't feel like writing the whole story again, so here's the thread I wrote on BackYardChickens about it if anyone cares enough to read (I'm SilverPhoenix on BYC): http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=395016

I think that's all that's going on right now. I slept almost all day today. ^^;

Comments

[ambertdd.livejournal.com]

Man that lady wtf. @__@

I've never really heard a corgi bark so I don't know how loud/shrill it is, but I can't imagine it being that bad, not even a few at once. The forum has some really valid points on both sides of the issue. That lady ought to be a little more open to compromise instead of shutting you down before you guys even get a chance to talk with her.

We live in a neighborhood full of dogs with developments all around us, also with dogs (though not as many). I guess ours are more tolerant? Idk. Our dogs sometimes go running around barking and playing at night. Though if it's really late we stop them. No one is really allowed to get mad at each other because everybody's dogs bark. 8'D The shiba next door is obnoxious when he gets going and the huskies across the street howl all the time (but that's okay).

[pacificpikachu.livejournal.com]

Ffff I wish our neighborhood was like that! Almost everyone in our neighborhood has dogs, and I hear dogs barking clearly right now at 2:43 AM, but it just so happens all four people surrounding our property don't have dogs. :/

[placetohide.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but I agree with everything the poster "welsummerchicks" had to say on those forums.


I've been in the position of someone who desperately needs sleep, desperately trying to sleep, being woken up every night by neighbor's pets. You say, "It's only 4 or 5 barks," but you have multiple dogs, which makes it that much more an explosion of sound, and that is enough to wake somebody up from sleep, especially if they're a light sleeper.

Your neighbor is probably having such an antagonistic and exaggerated reaction because the stress of this is building up for her to the point where she can't take it. Can you imagine going to sleep every night knowing your sleep was going to be interrupted/ruined at some point in time because your neighbors are loud in the middle of the night? I'd imagine by now she's just anticipating that, and it probably makes her even angrier.

I don't think it's right of to act like her waking up is her fault. People can't help if they are light sleepers, and barking dogs are a legitimate thing to wake people up. And I don't think it's good to talk about someone like they're crazy/about their personal problems that have nothing to do with you just to try to win over sympathy or make them sound crazy. (not saying you were implying this, but many posters in that thread did.) You don't know what is going on in this person's life, and they might be going through a really stressful time right now that's exacerbated by not getting a good night's sleep. :/


Couldn't you take your dogs for a walk instead of letting them out into the yard to bark, if you're up and active that late anyway?

[pacificpikachu.livejournal.com]

Yeah, to a certain degree I am sympathetic with her situation--hence why I'm making an effort to get the dogs to be quiet and to take them out in the back yard instead of the front yard where they prefer to go. Unfortunately there are a lot of triggers that make them bark, including tons of other barking dogs in the neighborhood, wildlife, and just getting all excited, but I am trying to get them to be quiet as best as I can.

I think the situation is less that I'm upset that she's angry because of the dogs barking, and has more to do with how she deals with it. I really don't think it's appropriate to be screaming and screeching and swearing at people when she made literally no attempt at civilly working this out with us even though we were kind to her before. We even gave her pretty well-paid housework when she couldn't find work, took care of her cat when she was gone at no charge, gave her a brand new litterbox for free, etc., and yet instead of just talking it over like rational human beings she explodes at us all the time and rants and slams the door. She was even screaming at us for looking at her property briefly when we heard her screaming her head off at someone at a yard sale she was holding.

I do take the dogs for walks at night a fair amount, and the only reason I don't take them for walks really late when they need to go at 1-3 AM is that it sets off all the dogs in the neighborhood and I don't want to do that either.

I don't know, I agree that to a certain degree it's our fault but I just wish she could be nicer about it, and I do believe people have a right to keep animals on their own property, especially in agricultural areas like ours. Animals are animals, they're not perfect and they don't always do things on the hours people want them to. For instance, our border collie has days where she literally will not eat before 10 PM no matter what you do, leading her to want to go out at 4-5 AM, and (while this isn't an issue I have) I know there have been situations where roosters crow at ridiculous hours, like 3 AM.

TL;DR I'm trying to resolve the situation so the dogs don't wake her up, but I'm also the sort of person who gets all sad and frustrated when people are angry with me so I wish she could've just talked to us about it. :/

[ambertdd.livejournal.com]

Also your cel went out, here's the tracking. :D
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[loika.livejournal.com]

As someone who has been bothered a lot by barking dogs at inappropriate hours, I sympathise a little with your neighbour. I'm generally pretty good with not being bothered by barking, but sometimes I'm just really tired and it's late at night and I either need to sleep for an early morning or concentrate and do a lot of work to meet deadlines ... it's those times that can really make you aggravated and aggressive. I have a neighbour whose dog has a habit of barking nonstop for quite literally hours late into the night, and recently it's really been bothering me. The stress and frustration you feel really builds up. I mean, I'm not going to yell at them or anything, I'm just saying I do understand what it's like to be on the receiving end.

I understand your dogs only bark 4 or 5 times and then stop, and personally that wouldn't bother me, but I can see how it would bother other people, especially if it's been going on for more than a year. I guess she thought she could try and put up with it but finally snapped. The way she's "dealing" with it is a bit alarming and I do think she should have made an attempt to talk to you about it civilly if it had been bothering her for so long, but lack of sleep and stress do make people a unreasonable. I hope you can somehow work it out with her (maybe leave her a letter if she won't let you talk to her?) since it seems like you've been on good terms before.

[pacificpikachu.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, yeah, incessant barking is definitely an issue. How irritating that the dogs bark nonstop! Doesn't sound like they're being very good dog owners...

Yeah, I think I'm mostly working with the issue by just taking my dogs out back where they don't bark as much (if at all) and it faces away from her house. The only problem is that they don't like doing their business out there, but if I keep taking them out there every night they ought to get used to it with time and bribes of fig peels. I feel bad that I wake her up, but I really do feel her reactions are out of hand. This is an agricultural area, there are barking dogs EVERYWHERE at all hours and crowing roosters (not just my own) and guinea fowl and sheep and all kinds of other things. It just so happens she and the other few surrounding houses hardly have any animals at all. That said, I do try to be considerate and not wake her up.

Anyway, hopefully I just won't wake her up any more if I can help it. I doubt we'll ever be friendly again--personally I think she is a bit unstable/has anger management problems (not just this, she shrieks and screams and swears at a number of things) and that makes me reluctant to get personally involved with her--but at least neutral would be nice. Not getting the evil eye or slamming doors would be nice when I'm just going out to feed my chickens during the day. :(

I might leave her a letter, we'll see. If I get the dogs to where they're not barking when they go out at night hopefully I just won't have to deal with her at all. ^^;

By the way, I loved your most recent art post! Sooo amazing! I just don't comment because to be honest I am rendered somewhat speechless! ♥ :D My admiration can only be properly expressed in starry-eyed emoticons and all caps.

[loika.livejournal.com]

Well, on most days/nights I can put up with it or ignore it, it's just when I'm really tired/stressed that it gets on my nerves. On the other hand, sometimes I feel sorry for dogs -- how terrible it must be to want to bark and not be able to!

there are barking dogs EVERYWHERE at all hours
I wonder if it's an issue of your dogs barking suddenly and stopping? It's easier to get used to noise when it has a sort of rhythm. Eh, who knows.

I think it's great that you're taking the initiative to (hopefully) resolve the problem. I know you love your dogs (and from what I know they're lovely!) and wouldn't want anything to happen to them from a angry neighbour.

crowing roosters
I've never lived anywhere with roosters before. ;o; There are kookaburras here though; they start coo-coo-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga'ing really early in the morning, around 4~5AM. :D If I'm staying up late and hear them I grin to myself.

Aww, thanks so much. ;o; ♥!!