Bad Dog Owners

This is not the dog of my story. He was just up for a Parade in my city and was very cute and loving! Nothing like the dog listed below!

I live in an area where there are a lot of dogs. Most residents of my neighborhood have a dog (or more). I will admit, I even have a dog. What gets to me is how many of these people have a dog that shouldn't have a dog. We lived next door to a couple who had 4 dogs that attacked my daughters, every time they left the house! Thankfully, they moved! But she told all her friends and co-workers that I am the evil one and hate dogs! I don't hate dogs! I hate their owners! Especially, when the owners are horrible, evil owners. Over the winter break, my daughters were outside playing when a dog came up and started chasing them. Since they aren't afraid of dogs as much as they used to be (helps that the other dogs are gone), they felt that the dog was playing with them. But when I went out to try and get the dog out of my yard and back to his home, he growled at me! That is not playing! Then I found out that the dog had bitten my daughter, but because she was wearing her brand new, Christmas Coat, it tore her coat and not her arm! I reported the incident to the dog warden and the woman came over with her friend and started cursing at me. It seems that my repairing the coat (yes, I can sew) so she could continue to wear it out and about, "was a crock of S***!" It seems she cannot prove that the dog has been vaccinated or licensed! She has since refused to reimburse for the damaged coat (only $20, but I found it on sale when coats were easily available)! I really think that dogs that bite, are unlicensed and running free, should be taken from their owners and they should also be put down! No second chances on that one! Yes, I realize I have a dog, but if she bit someone (that was not breaking into my house), she would be destroyed! No second thoughts on my part! What are your thoughts!

They are GONE!!!

On previous posts I have told about my evil dog owning neighbors. These are the people who own 4 dogs that come into my yard terrorizing my children and biting one of them! I have taught my children (and other people's children) what to do should those dogs come into my yard while the children are out there. I have kept shovels (heavy duty) close to my door so that should I have to go out after the dog to protect my children (or other children) in my yard, I could. I have prayed that they move and God answered my prayers. They moved (I feel for their neighbors in GA). Recently, I thought I would search the woman's facebook and found that she told her friends that I am an evil cop-calling-dog-hater! So very funny to me that I am to blame for all her troubles with her dogs. Dogs that she had to have! Dogs that she didn't train! Dogs that she didn't exercise! I think the last is most important to note. She even told the police that it was my fault that her dogs would get out of her yard, run into mine, bite or corner my children. It was my fault because I have children and cats!

They put their house on the market in September, had an offer on the house in October and moved out in November!!!! In this housing market it was a prayer answered. I have still not met the new neighbors, but that is okay, I know that I will eventually.

As for dog-hating....I love dogs. I would take care of previous neighbors dogs. One neighbor's dog, would leave their yard and come onto my back porch. I would open the door, he would come into my house and play with the kids. I would yell over to the owners and let them know that I had their dog. They would bring over his leash and say to bring him home when he was finished playing. They were a great couple and I was sad to see them leave. But they needed a smaller place (he had bad knees and couldn't take the stairs).

The next neighbor had a dog. This dog was so sweet. She would bark at my husband because she didn't trust men, but she loved the girls and I took care of her. She would come over to my yard with her owner on a regular basis. Her husband was transferred to CO soon after buying and moving into this house.

I also could control another neighbor's Rottweilers. Both dogs were female and the most loving, sweet dogs (although one would corner my husband and I would have to go rescue him). They would always come to my house for me to love on them (they were two doors away).

I would take care of my parent's dogs. I grew up with Chihuahuas, shepherds, dobermans and a collie. My neighbor growing up had dobermans and greyhounds that I took care of when she went out of town. I stayed at her place over weekends while in college to care for her dogs. I walked all these dogs and loved all of them. So I find that dog-hater label funny. I only hated her dogs because of the fear they created in my children. My one daughter is still afraid of dogs, especially if they get excited and make noises. My other daughter backs away from dogs when they get too rambunctious. As for the cop-calling, sorry but if you can't take care of your dogs, then I need to involve police so that you understand your job! They had to go to court over the attacks on my children. I think they only got the idea that I didn't like them when I called the police on them and the dog warden.

By the way, the woman claims that she is going to be a veterinarian...seriously. I don't think that will be a good thing. I hope that they bought a place with lots of land.

On the crafting front. I have made several dishcloths (with two on needles in my bag) and 3 scarves (with one on needles). I am also making this really cool hat/scarf combo called an Athena Smoke Ring that is on needles. It looks really nice when it is finished.

My middle daughter is still healing but has been falling down a lot (sometimes with help from a boy pushing her from behind). She is not supposed to be running (yeah right), she is not to be playing contact sports (does tag count), she is not to be participating in PE (there wasn't any running or contact sports involved), she is to be wrapped in a blanket to go outside for recess (seriously what idiot thought of that one-a nurse). She is not to climb on the play equipment (like that would happen). I get some interesting phone calls from the school about her.

Well time to go to bed....have a good evening all.

Punishments

I really don't know who I punish more when I take away tv viewing for a day or several days. My middle girl who can read at a 3rd grade level (while still in Kindergarten) or myself. When I turn off the tv the girls tear the house apart. They do things that would bring them harm (sliding down the stairs on blankets) and lots of noise. I tried throwing them out of the house to play, but we had the "it's a bug" crying, the "it's raining" cry and the one I loved most...."it's a thunderstorm." It doesn't help that they really can't play in our backyard without constant supervision (not of them, but of the evil neighbors and their evil dogs). I do have Jim Dale reading Harry Potter books (number 5) playing in hopes that they listen quietly (yeah, right), but that is not happening. I can't handle this much noise and there are things that I want to get finished before the weekend. That is what I am trying to do...I am working on dishcloths (to give as gifts), my daughter's hat (she tore the needles apart trying to put an 1 1/2 inch amount of knitted hat on her very large head) that I have restarted more times than I care to count, 3 afghans and 1 clown and 1 penguin. When I get these finished I'll post the links to where I got the patterns or at least the book that you can look at to make something like it. I am also trying to get photos onto my snapfish account so that I can print photos for my neice (she is coming to town and I like to give her pictures of her with her cousins). But that keeps stopping itself. So very frustrating. I decided to take a break from that and put up some photos of things I have made recently. I hadn't put up photos because gifts for my friends were in there and I wanted this to be a surprise for them.

Okay, now to the pictures:
Hats that I have made.... The pattern idea came from Wendy Knits. It is a 3 x 3 rib, but I added 18 to the cast on to make it large enough to fit my daughter's head. The smaller size fits my youngest daughter and my neice. This hat was made for my oldest daughter and fits my youngest. It uses some leftover sock yarn that is a rainbow. My oldest loves rainbows. I started with a 3 x 3 knit and I don't remember how many I cast on and I used 1 1/2 US dpns. When I got to the crown, I just started playing around with trying to put a long thin area that would just be fun.

Did I mention that I was working on dishcloths? I think I did. I have a friend who likes the color yellow, so I made her some yellow dishcloths: I made one with a stripe, because I had someone ask me how to add a stripe to knit items. I made one that has Christmas coloring. I made just a plain yellow dishcloth. I also used a pattern from RaAnn Clegg (her site is: http://wicketstitch.blogspot.com/2007/11/leprechaun-and-pot-of-gold-dishcloth.html) I love her designs and I really enjoy making the dishcloths using her patterns. I also finished a prayer shawl. I gave this to my friend Margaret. She has very serious asthma and hasn't been feeling well. Also, there have been a number of accidents in her yard or in front of her house. She loved her new shawl and was very happy to get this. I also began teaching my daughters how to knit. This is the scarf that my oldest girl worked on:

Now for some of our backyard wildlife: We saw this poor bird and couldn't figure out what it was, but with some research, it appears to be an albino robin (it is half normal coloring and half albino). We have several rabbits They come very close to the house.

My newest cat has become a very interesting part of our household. After Easter, we had some empty Easter baskets lying around and she would lay down in them She likes to play with pencils: The other two cats just have to have a good deal of adult contact. My middle cat, has taken up residence in a broken drawer of my daughter's dresser (we are in the process of trying to fix it, again).

It's June.....

I find it hard to believe that it is already June. We celebrated my oldest girl's birthday. We had the girl's annual birthday picnic. We celebrated my oldest girl's 8th birthday, my middle girl's 7th birthday and for those who just can't get around to it, my youngest girl's 5 1/2 birthday. Everyone seemed to have a good time. My friend and I had dueling cameras (that is where we took pictures of each other while taking each other's picture). I was so glad to see all my friends who made it up to celebrate with us. Had a nice visit with my cousin, who came to the party. Visited with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. My mother-in-law had just had surgery and was recuperating at home, but my father-in-law made it to the party. My parents made it....but my sisters (one of whom likes to state that we live too far away) and my brother didn't attend. But then they don't want to make the effort. This is where my friends, who are more like sisters, come in....they take the place of my sisters who like people to think they are good aunts, but really don't make the effort. I love being an aunt, but was never given the opportunity to be an aunt to my neices. When I married my husband, I inherited a nephew. A great guy. I was allowed to take him places, spoil him and take a real interest in him. I will be grateful to my sister-in-law for letting me be the aunt that I wanted to be. My brother-in-law is also allowing me to be an aunt to his child. I love that little girl, but I refuse to dictated to by her. Reason: I have three girls and it would be anarchy if I let her do it and they saw me let her do it. I do love her and I love the time I have been allowed to be around her. We wish we could see her more often, but she lives pretty far away and when she comes to town we go to see her at my in-laws. I am looking forward to July, because I will get to see my neice again and we want to take her swimming or playing at a park. My girls are also looking forward to her visit. They have so much fun together.

Now, I finished a prayer shawl today, took a picture (haven't downloaded the photo yet) and put in a box to be wrapped to give to my friend for a gift when she needs one most. She has been down a lot lately. People are crashing in her front yard and in front of her house and her lilac bush has been seriously hit more than a few times. You add in that her health hasn't been the greatest, (I have no room to talk) it really weighs her down. I miss seeing her and hanging out with her, but we do try to talk whenever we can.

I started working on a blanket for another friend's child. She gave me all this yarn that had been intended for her to make a baby blanket with, but she couldn't motivate to make the blanket. So I told her I would see what I could do for her. It is acrylic yarn and I am using two strands at once. I will be curious to see how this turns out.

Backyard wildlife has been blossoming. We have big black rat snakes....Saw one with my own eyes and where there is one there are two. We have lots of bunnies - adults and babies. Got to love that. We have chipmunks (I wonder if that is what drew the snakes to us). Birds, lots and lots of colorful birds. But there is a noticeable absence of cats...in the past we have had lots of strays in our backyard. We always took care of them, but they seemed to have backed off recently. It must be the neighbors evil dogs. Yes, I still have my lazy neighbor and her evil dogs. Over the winter it came to brass tacks. I take photos of the dogs in my yard, call the police and the dog catcher. Then they (the idiot neighbors) go to court and have to pay fines for their dogs. I noticed something one day. I was walking to church and when I was walking on the sidewalk, she would scold the dogs for going on the attack, but let us go out our back door to our backyard, she lets them continue the attack. I had a friend and her children over one day, I was telling her children where the yard ended so they stayed in our yard. Then I let the children out into the backyard and her dogs were out. My friend got to see first hand what I have been dealing with. She let them continue to charge barking and growling at the children (3 of whom were not mine). We watched the dogs and made sure that the children were safe, but she is getting even for our calling the police on her. But then her dogs should not be allowed to chase my children (has happened twice) or run in my yard (happened at least 4 times that I know of). The thing that is most gross is that she doesn't clean up after her dogs and it smells like a sewer next door. I know eventually there will be repercussions from that. That will have to come from the HOA.

I should be finishing a dishcloth and a hat real soon, plus I really want to finish some afghans. We will see where I end up on these projects. Have a good week.

I am addicted to...

facebook. I know that is becoming more common with many people. I enjoy some of the games and then when I get on my children start demanding a turn. That doesn't mean there hasn't been things happening, but facebook cuts into other activities.

1. I am now sitting and watching out my back window for my neighbors to get lazy again. Their dogs attacked my daughter one Saturday in the new year. They had her cornered on the porch with her trying like mad to get into the house. The neighbor says "Sorry" like that is supposed to make all things better. Now, I sit where I can watch out the backyard more often with a camera ready to take photos of her dogs trespassing into my yard again. We are also plotting putting some nasty bushes along our border with some kind of fencing that you put on the ground and cuts up paws when walked on. I know that this is evil, but I have to protect my children and I refuse to give up my yard this summer, so that she can be a lazy dog owner. She has 3big dogs and 1 small dog, all mean.

2. I am busy with Girl Scouts. I am my daughter's leader and so we are selling cookies. They want to sell quite a few and so we have been walking and calling to sell cookies.

3. I am busy taking my daughter's to the library to get books for them to read or be read. Love the library.

4. I have been taking my daughter's (all three) to their basketball practices. Then to games on Saturday. My wonderful sister-in-law has been coming up from Kentucky on Saturday mornings that my husband works to help me get my oldest to her game. The younger two play at same times and different venue than their older sister.

5. I am helping my church's mission group with baskets for their silent auction. We are doing a knitted love and a dry ingredient cookie jars. This should prove interesting. They have to be finished this weekend. Wish me luck. I have finished 2 dishcloths for them and now if I could just finish a prayer shawl we would be going places.

6. My friend is having surgery on Jan 27th. She has to have her gall bladder removed because she has a lot of stones. My mother has to have surgery, but she is anemic and they are trying to find out why. Pray for them. Pray for the people of Haiti as they deal with all the losses they are experiencing. Help them to be patient as people come in to help them.

7. I am also busy reading. I love to read and so I read a book about Charlie Bone (the 1st in a series). It was a very good book. I am also reading a Dan Brown book, a G-Free book, a 101 Chicken Soup for the Souls book and a book from a series about ghosts (5th in the series).

Enjoy the photos below.





The first couple are photos of my oldest playing basketball on Saturday....I forgot to mention, she had the most rebounds!!!! Way to go, Honey!!!! My younger two are posed with their teams. The token girls look like boys, because they have very short hair. But short hair is best. Then I have a photo of my cats all on my bed and next to each other. Yay, cats!