The neighbors and their pit bull...

We are pouring so much of our time, energy, and heart into our first home to make it a wonderful place to enjoy for us and our kids for years to come. One thing that we love about our house is our huge fenced in back yard. It has been wonderful knowing that we can for the most part turn our kids outside to play without having to worry too much about something awful happening to them.

All of that has changed this week. Our next door neighbors now own a big pit bull.

I didn't know it was the neighbors dog at first. You see, the dog kept showing up in our driveway snooping around our garbage cans. It had a collar and I figured it had wandered from it's home, wherever that was. I shooed it away, hoping it was just passing through. The next day, the dog was in our back yard. I really hate to sound so prejudiced against this breed of dog, but I've heard too many horror stories and they scare me to death. They just look mean to me. I wouldn't let the girls go out and tried early in the morning to call Animal Control (of course, they weren't open yet) The day got away from me - we were out getting our van repaired and weren't home for most of the day. When we did get home, the dog wasn't in our yard anymore but was at our neighbors. On Saturday, Jeff and I were working in the back yard and I literally watched the pit bull jump over the fence right into our yard. She came to eat our dog's dogfood...again. I called Animal Control and they told me they would send someone out. Well, they did...THREE HOURS LATER. Needless to say, by that time, the dog had gone back to our neighbors fenced in back yard and was at that time contained. AC couldn't do anything about it since it was possible that the dog belonged to the the neighbors. They weren't home, so we couldn't ask. AC left some paperwork on their door explaining the leash law and how they have a right to pick any dog that isn't on their own property. They told me to call them back if the pit bull came back into the yard.

That evening, the dog was back in our back yard. This happened right about the time the neighbors were returning home. I walked over and met them as they were standing on their porch reading the paperwork Animal Control left them. I asked them if they owned a pit bull and they told me yes, they had just gotten her this week. My heart sank. All this time, I thought that the dog was just hanging around in our neighborhood. I told my neighbor that the dog had been on my property for the last few days and that we called Animal Control to take it away because we didn't know who it belonged to. I told him that we watched the dog jump over the fence into our yard and he seemed really taken aback. I also told him that he needed to keep the dog off of our property because quite frankly, I don't trust the breed and I have three young children to protect. He told me that he would keep an eye on the dog. I sincerely hope that he doesn't think that we are trying to be nasty neighbors because for the last 2 1/2 years that we've been here, we've had no problems with them at all. They were very helpful last month when I accidentally locked my keys and phone (and daughter) in the van and had to use their phone to contact the police to unlock it. They are very nice and friendly. But, that said, the safety of my family comes first. If the dog gets in our yard again, if the neighbors are home, I may tell them one more time that they need to better contain her, but after that, we'll have to have the dog taken off.

I'm thinking now that we need a 6 foot high fence. Wood would be prettier, but chain linked would be more economical. Of course, we don't have money in the budget now for either one, and I just read a pit bull story this morning about them digging holes under the fence to get to a neighboring yard (and attacking an 8 year old girl playing in her own yard). Ugh, it seems hopeless! There has to be a way, somehow, to prevent dogs from digging under a fence. I need to research that.

In other house related news, we didn't get to put the final coat of stain on our deck because of rain that was to move through Saturday night. But during the day Saturday, we worked in our front yard building a landscaping bed. It looks really nice so far! I can now spread out the soil so that it's nice and level thanks to the wood ties we put down. No more sloping bed! I'll take pictures when it has been completed. Next spring, I'm actually going to attempt to put some colorful plants out there. We've been looking around for nurseries that sell compost this late in the year and haven't been I only did a couple of planter baskets this year and they did great, so I'm slowly moving up the green thumb ladder.

That's all for now:)