Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Neighbor's Barking Dog -- HELP!

I had a bad night. For dinner, we had my pasta salad. Unfortunately, we were out of bread, so I didn't have a soluble fiber before I ate the salad. But, hey, it had PASTA in it, so I should have been fine, right?

WRONG. The cramps began about a half hour later, and then the Big D hit several hours later, and I was up all night. Equalactin helped, but I didn't want to take the Donnatal because I had taken a Tylenol PM to make me sleep (I have a problem shutting my mind down at the end of the day; it wants to keep on decorating when it should be sleeping).

Okay, getting to the problem....

I have only one neighbor. She's young and single, living alone, and obviously wants her privacy. She has a HUGE dog with a nasty temperament (half rotweiller, half lab). George barks ALL DAY LONG, and into the night as well. Although JoAnne works several days a week, and has an extremely long commute, such that George is home alone most of the time, we happen to know for a fact that she's home many times when he barks -- we've seen her in the kitchen.

Now, I like her very much, and I want to keep a good relationship with her. BUT, I can't tolerate that constant barking, especially in the night hours (10:00 p.m.) and early morning hours (7:00 a.m.) This morning, after having a terrible night, George woke me up at 7:00 with his constant barking.

Now, bear in mind there's no one anywhere around -- we both live in the woods -- why the hell should he be barking?! Don and I think she allows the barking deliberately, to ward off anyone from approaching. Believe me, no one would come NEAR that place with that dog; he's not nice!

I have been known to yell at George -- many times -- and very loudly. No doubt she's heard me. Sometimes my yelling shuts him up, sometimes it doesn't.

She has told me twice to call her with any problems or requests, and given me her office and home numbers. (I've called both, and always get an answering machine at both numbers.) Don thinks I should call and politely ask her to quiet him, especially at night and in the early morning hours. I'm not shy, and I would do so -- except for the fact that I know she's gonna resent it. She wants George to bark, it's her protection, so she's not gonna want to oblige me. Besides, she chose to rent that shack next door because it IS in the woods, away from everyone; after all, that place was here long before we ever bought these lots and began building.

And I truly do not want any problems with my only neighbor.

Here's my reason for not saying anything to her: 10 years ago, when we were temporarily renting while a previous home of ours was being built, the neighbor complained to me about my two little Westies barking whenever the newspaper boy brought her morning paper; she said it was early in the morning and they woke her up. I did not take her criticism well; after all, that's the ONLY time my puppy dogs barked, and there was no place else where I could have had my dogs. They were inside, in my kitchen, with the windows closed. For some reason, they just didn't like the smell of the newspaper boy. However, to appease the neighbor, Don had to take the dogs out for a ride in the car to get them away every morning before the newspaper boy arrived -- which, in time, I began to resent having to do.

Of course my neighbor was right, but I did not take it well at all. So you see, I don't what the reverse situation to occur -- and it has. Now I understand what that neighbor was going through. She was very polite to me, and I should have taken it better than I did.

What to do, what to do? HELP!

Bev

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<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~letsrow/smily3481.gif">Bevvy

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