It takes a village.... or something like that

I have done something that I sincerely regret. It's not anything immoral or unethical. It wasn't against the law or even what I would consider rude, but yet I still regret it.

In order to understand better I have to preface this by saying that I absolutely detest my neighbors. They moved in next door to me about a year ago and to this day I can not tell you who actually lives there. A couple months ago there was a big blow out(at 3 am of course) and one of the guys that lives there moved out. It seems though that he was replaced by about 4 others.

My neighbors have parties, all the time. They also have a lot of friends, most of whom I can only assume are vampires because they only visit when it is dark outside, preferably after midnight. Alot of these visitors are also very adverse to actually getting out of their car and going into the house. They would much rather pull up in front of MY house and honk their horn until someone comes out which thrills my dog to death and causes hyper barking at all hours of the night. Fabulous.

They also have a dog. This dog (whom I have named Wiggles because I have no idea what her name really is and have not actually spoken to my neighbors since the fateful night a few months ago when I walked into my backyard at 2am and basically told them to SHUT THE HELL UP) is absolutely adorable. She is part pit bull and has recently been forced into outside dog status, just in time for the hottest part of the year with no shade whatsoever, might I add.

Wiggles favorite spot in the entire yard is right next to the fence separating our yards and as there is no privacy fence on that side we get to see her mournfully stare at us through the chain link and when we look in that direction, she goes wild. First, her ears perk up. Then the thought bubble appears over her head.

"OMG....THEY'RE LOOKING AT ME, THEY'RE LOOKING AT ME, THEY'RE LOOKING AT ME!!!!!"

Her entire body then starts to shake. Not out of fear, no. She is just so darn excited that just wagging her tail is not nearly enough to convey how happy she is.

Every once in awhile we will walk over to the fence and pet her head and give her a rawhide. She will then spend then next 2-3 hours running through her backyard, throwing it up in the air, pouncing upon it and then doing it all again. Eventually, she will settle down and chew on it, but not until she is absolutely positive that it is good and dead.

Last night I was sleeping. Chad was snoring, the fan was on to drown out any of the possible noises coming from the house next door. At some point I was awoken (awaken?) by a persistent bark that sounded like it was under my bed. It took me a second but I realized it was the dog next door. By this time it had awoken both of my dogs who respond to a dog barking by...well by barking back, except they are much, much louder.

I yelled at my dogs and tried to go back to sleep. I placed the pillow over my head and still could hear the persistent yapping and it really did sound like it was really close.

I got up and went to my window to peer out and see if I could figure out what was making that dog bark. I peeked through the blinds and there was Wiggles, sitting by the fence.

Staring at my window.

She wasn't barking at another dog, she wasn't barking at a bird, or squirrel or anything else. She was barking to let me know that she was out there. I tried several times to lay back down and go to sleep but the barking persisted.

Now, this is when it would be incredibly handy to be Chad. He has a pretty severe hearing loss so the neighbors antics never bother him. The only reason he woke up at all is because my constant muttering under my breath and our dogs barking right next to him seemed to penetrate his eardrums and so he asked me what the problem was.

I told him how the dog had been barking, at this point, pretty consistently for 45 minutes and the neighbors had not even attempted to come outside and figure out what the problem was. I grumped and tossed and turned and complained.

After another 5 minutes of this I couldn't take it anymore and reached for my robe. Chad turned over and asked me where I was going. I didn't say anything, I was on a mission. I wanted quiet.

So I grabbed a rawhide treat and went out into my backyard to bribe Wiggles into being quiet for the rest of the night. And it worked. I didn't hear a peep out of her for the rest of the night.

And then tonight at midnight, when the barking started. I just grabbed the rawhide and met her at the fence.

Apparently, I have created a monster.