Yesterday was bad. I think that was a bit apparent in my post from last night. It starts on Monday, with me outside weeding when the neighbor's dog showed up next to me. The dog remained in our yard for the next four hours. I assumed she just forgot it was outside, or ended up being gone longer than she had planned, and didn't think much of it.

Tuesday morning the kids and I were headed down the stairs to leave and the dog starts barking outside our door. It is pouring rain out and the dog is soaked. It's a Shih Tzu and could not possibly weigh more then 12 lbs. I loaded the dog into my car and drove it to the neighbor's to find her not home. On top of that, the front yard had a dog house and pen setup outside that the dog must have escaped from.

There is no way that dog house could protect that little dog from the sleet and cold. So I made a bunch of phone calls while sitting in her driveway and ended up driving us all back home and waiting on one man, who is animal control in our township, to get out of a township meeting and pick the dog up. Three hours later he comes to get the dog and I figured that was the end of that.

Fast forward to 9pm that same night and I'm getting home from shopping to find the dog sitting at my front door again. I loaded it up, drove to the neighbor's house and discover that she is not home. The weird part is that the note the animal control guy showed me he was going to leave her the first time was still sitting in her door. That had me even more concerned that something wasn't right.

So I called the animal control guy and no one answered. I called the Sheriff's line and got a deputy and she made a note but couldn't take the animal. She did tell me that the township had some meeting that night and the place was packed so I'd probably get a call once that was done. Two hours later the neighbor pulls up my driveway and informs me that she called the number on the note and the animal control guy said I had the dog at my house. (I'm still fuming that he didn't call me back.) We made small talk as I had hoped she had some reason for all this debacle but instead found out that she picked her dog up when she got home from work and then put it back outside "with blankets" and left for work again.

It's was 38 degrees outside at this point and raining, I had the dog in my possession for 2 hours that evening on top of the other 3 hours that morning, and it was eleven o'clock at night; needless to say I was seeing red. I can't remember the whole conversation clearly because I was working so hard to be polite and to the point but I basically told her that I will continue to call animal control on her if I see that she is leaving her dog outside for extended periods of time like this. I told her the dog has come to my home three times now, that I've gone to her house looking for her, and that I don't appreciate being put in this predicament. We didn't argue, it was short and brief, but it also wasn't pleasant.

I didn't sleep well last night, terrified I'd find the dog outside my door again this morning. Thankfully it wasn't there. And after some more thought I left a note on her door telling her that it seems she is gone for extended periods of time and if she'd like the kids and I could let the dog out and play with it when we are home. Not many people will understand this conclusion but I had to do it to put my mind at ease. It won't be a big deal to let the dog out and play with it when we're around but mostly, I'm not a confrontational person, especially with a neighbor who's name I don't even know, and while I stand by my decision to let her know that she was harming her dog, I feel better knowing I ended it trying to help instead of isolating her.