Crazy Lady Called Animal Control!

seriously! I feel so bad for this woman who has nothing better to do that to try to make our lives a living hell!

The section of the code we were notified of possibly being in violation for was for "Animal Noise". It says:

"no person shall own, possess, harbor, control, or keep on any premises any [dog] that barks, bays, cries, howls, or makes any other noise so continuously or incessantly as to unreasonably disturb the peace or quiet of any 2 persons living in different households within 300 feet of the incident."

it also says:

"...at the time that the animal is making the noise, no person or other animal is trespassing or threatening to trespass, or no person is teasing or provoking the animal."

and lastly, it says:

"This section shall not be construed to prohibit the keeping of of any watchdog, provided the keeper thereof takes immediate steps to quiet such a dog whenever it barks, and provided that such keeper never leaves such dog unattended on the premises in a place where it is barking..."

Yes. My dogs bark. But here's what we have going for us:

- Crazy Lady yells through the fence at them often. She has taken to mowing her lawn numerous times a week because it pisses my dogs off.

- "The Loonies" used to spray water at Maddie through the fence to try to get her to stop barking. Yeah. that works.

- Maddie barks when we are out there playing with her. She's a dog. If I could tell Crazy Lady to stop talking, I would. There should be a City Ordinance for that!

- Maddie barks while squirrels run across the phone lines in our back yard and stops when they are out of site. Technically, that is "another animal threatening to trespass". :)

-Our two side neighbors have agreed to write and sign affadivits (sp?) about how our dogs (and how we deal with them) don't "unreasonably disturb the peace or quiet".

- Our dogs are NEVER (and I don't use that term lightly) left outside when we are not home.

- We have lived here for almost 4 years, with the same dogs, barking the same amount, and we've never gotten a complaint before.

Poor Crazy Lady....she has no clue that I am graduating and will having nothing better to do with my time than to research things like harassment and misuse of public services. I am sure there is something out there.