Soon after we rented the Calgary house (a couple months ago), but before we had moved in (a week ago), I was there with my daughter, and I happened to see the neighbor on the left outside her house. I introduced us, and tried to be nice and friendly. I've never really had any serious interactions with neighbors at other houses -- we tend to keep to ourselves entirely -- but I figured no harm in trying to start off on a good note.
In fact we ran into to her a couple more times, and said hello, and introduced D.
So D was there with the the dogs for the first time last week (before that they'd been in Edmonton with me at beta house). They were noisy and up early in the morning. The house is close to the neighboring houses, and close to the street, and there are lots of unfamiliar sounds. Normally we leave them alone in the house during the workday, and it isn't an issue, but when he did this on the second workday there, he came home at lunch to find a nasty anonymous note in the mailbox, complaining about the dogs, and threatening to call the city on us. Apparently the dogs had been barking during the day, which is not something that they have done before, at least as far as we're aware.
Of course, the dogs are our responsibility, and we can't let them bother the neighbors. But to send anonymous threats the first week? Come on! Also D was in the shower when they knocked on the door (before seven in the morning) and presumably at work when they came back later. He came back at lunch to check on the dogs both days, and didn't know there was any issue. "Rarely home"? This happened on the morning of the SECOND DAY they were left alone at home!!!
Well, we didn't know who sent the note. I couldn't believe it was the person we had already met several times. Surely she would have tried to talk in person, or done some other civilized thing. But I felt a response was needed, so I wrote a note to be left in the mailboxes of the neighbors on both sides.
Dear Neighbor,
Hopefully whoever left the anonymous note for us will receive this response.
Thank you for letting us know our dogs were making a racket. We are very sorry and embarrassed that they were disturbing you. They have not previously been so obnoxious, but they seem to be highly agitated due to our move this past week. Our former house was on a much larger lot, and I suppose the dogs are not yet used to the higher activity level surrounding the house (passersby, vehicles, and neighboring dogs etc).
Our plan is to kennel them during the day if nobody is home, which should keep them settled down. In fact, more often than not there will be somebody home, once the dust settles on our move from Edmonton, since one of us works from home.
If that does not resolve the issue, then we will send them to doggie daycare during the day.
We haven’t previously experienced this problem with these dogs, so please bear with us for a little while as we try to solve it. Don’t hesitate to contact us (again) if you notice that the dogs are noisy during the day, so that we can take appropriate actions.
Our letter had full contact information and everything. It really annoyed me that the original letter was anonymous.
Anyway, we've gone full out on keeping the dogs quiet. We've been crating them if they are alone in the house, which they don't like, but that doesn't keep them perfectly quiet, so mostly we're avoiding having to leave them alone. We're also making arrangements for doggie daycare next week when D will have them in Calgary on his own most likely (I am working in Edmonton half the time at the moment). But it's all been very stressful. There's nothing like being in a new neighborhood (due to a pretty much totally unwanted move) leaving all the things, and then your neighbor turns out to be a total asshole, but you don't even know which one, or the exact specifics, so you just get to be paranoid all the time. It was making me totally hate Calgary.
But last night, D found a note in the mailbox:
Omg it was such a relief! We both cried. How nice to experience a tiny bit of kindness. The writer signed her name and gave her address, so we know she's the right-side neighbor.
I guess we don't know for an absolute fact that the letter writer was the left-side neighbor. In theory it could be someone across the street or something. But chances are pretty good that it is. So much for trying to get things started on the right foot!
