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grrgoylShe simply doesn't care anymore. She finally succeeded in driving out her neighbor below her, a nice Asian woman who has lived there with two generations of her family since long before either the Crackwhore or Tery and I moved in. Now she thinks she has free run of the place as evidenced by Tery's observation that she is back to doing heavy-duty construction at about 4 a.m. (which thankfully for everyone involved I have so far slept through).
The barking had gotten so bad again that I filed another complaint. But our HOA has recently changed administrators and the new people were of the opinion that since ridiculously steep fines hadn't made much of a difference in the past, we were better off trying to reason with her. Hardly surprising that an outfit called "Cherry Creek HOA Professionals" doesn't have a lot of experience in dealing with druggies. Failing the diplomatic approach, they suggested going to the city, since the barking also violated their ordinances. They did go to the trouble of scheduling a hearing for this past Tuesday that I had every intention of attending.
Before this could take place, however, Sunday morning Tery and I returned home from work just in time to see her leaving. We didn't think much of it until we realized that the dogs were locked out on the balcony. She does this to prevent them from tearing up all the nice new renovations inside the unit. She was gone for 12 HOURS, and I shouldn't have to tell you the dogs barked approximately every 6 minutes for that entire time (with the exception of a blessedly long nap in the middle). By 7:30 or 8 p.m. the barking had a whining, desperate quality to it, probably because they had run out of food and/or water. Also by 7:30 or 8 p.m. Tery and I were both contemplating taking an ice pick to our eardrums. That's when I broke down and called Animal Control, and can anyone blame me?
Of course no one works there on a Sunday evening so I left a message. On Monday they promised to mail her a warning. I virtually shimmied with glee, imagining her opening the envelope from the city, though why I thought she would take that any more seriously than any other punishment kind of escapes me at the moment. Then Tuesday came and as I got ready for the hearing, my neighbor the Alcoholic (L) across the way called to point out the large, steaming pile of turds on the Crackwhore's balcony. She urged me to take a picture of it and bring it to the hearing. I did, but no one there wanted to see it, despite my assurance that it wasn't in "Smell-o-Vision." The Crackwhore didn't show for her own hearing, just an indication as I said of how seriously she takes all of this. The Board's suggestions did make sense in that they believe she won't sit up and take notice until the city threatens to haul her dogs to the pound.
On Wednesday the heap of turds had not only not been cleaned up, it had been added to. Again I documented and emailed it to L, who forwarded it on to the board admininstrator (D), a friend of hers. He was very concerned about the health issue and urged us to get the city involved with this complaint as well. L called and got an officer dispatched to look at it, but then copied me on a follow-up mail she sent to D.
"Can't the HOA do anything about the mess? It's going to start to smell." I rolled my eyes, picturing her fanning herself with kid gloves, threatening to faint dead away from the horror of it all. You'd think the poo was going to come to life and leap onto her balcony. As anyone with pets can tell you, poo tends to dry up and harden over time, becoming less odiferous, not more. Take it from someone with 3 ferrets and 2 cats, all but one of whom have no compunction about doing their business outside of designated areas. I know from fecal material.
I imagine in some ways homeowners who can attain this level of histrionics over a pile of poo cause as many headaches for board administrators as the ones who refuse to follow rules.
The officer came, saw and wrote a warning. I doubted her credentials as one who works in the animal industry when she referred to ferret Griffyn as a rodent and foolishly tried to pet Pepita, who like the rest of her kind is extremely touchy and cranky about allowing human contact and isn't a bit shy about putting her vicious-looking curved beak to use. I was frustrated by her visit because she said the barking and the pooping had to be treated as separate violations requiring separate courses of action, rather than what they actually are, symptoms of the larger problem of animal neglect. The next step is more tickets, if necessary, which will eventually lead to issuing a summons for creating a public nuisance. Personally I wish we could just skip ahead to the threats of removal rather than enduring more interrupted sleep just to observe the due process of law. Stupid law.
It's not that I want the dogs taken away. Everyone knows I love animals. I believe there are no bad pets, only bad owners. I feel sorry for them when I see them stuck out there on the balcony all day. But then they start barking at the passing breeze and I feel homicidal (canicidal?) again. Tery feels the dogs are so unsocialized they are actually only one step away from being junkyard dogs. I even spent a minute or two feeling bad about persecuting the Crackwhore so relentlessly. It seemed hypocritical when my #1 absolute biggest peeve is people butting in and telling others how to live their lives. But the situation is different when someone's lifestyle has an adverse effect on your own (and I mean more adverse than staying up at night worrying about who is having sex with who and if they are the correct genders). Yes, we ourselves have 6 animals. But no one else knows we do because we have 6 quiet animals. 6 quiet animals who sleep at night and don't hang out on the balcony barking at everything that moves at 2 a.m. Even Pepita knows better and makes only quiet noises after the sun goes down (which is adorable and funny), when she makes noise at all. So yeah, I believe when your animals are waking me up every single night out of a sound sleep and sometimes keeping me awake for hours after, I have the right to step in and say "Enough." And I'll say as much to the Crackwhore if she ever tries to confront me about picking on her and her little angels. I vaguely worry about retaliatory complaints, until I remember that she will never find neighbors more considerate than us. I DREAM of having neighbors like us someday.
The extreme irony of all this is apparently her own father is a property manager. His response to all the complaints and fines was something along the lines of "That isn't how things are done." Which begs the question, why don't you let your darling drug-dealing daughter live in YOUR complex, sir?
The barking had gotten so bad again that I filed another complaint. But our HOA has recently changed administrators and the new people were of the opinion that since ridiculously steep fines hadn't made much of a difference in the past, we were better off trying to reason with her. Hardly surprising that an outfit called "Cherry Creek HOA Professionals" doesn't have a lot of experience in dealing with druggies. Failing the diplomatic approach, they suggested going to the city, since the barking also violated their ordinances. They did go to the trouble of scheduling a hearing for this past Tuesday that I had every intention of attending.
Before this could take place, however, Sunday morning Tery and I returned home from work just in time to see her leaving. We didn't think much of it until we realized that the dogs were locked out on the balcony. She does this to prevent them from tearing up all the nice new renovations inside the unit. She was gone for 12 HOURS, and I shouldn't have to tell you the dogs barked approximately every 6 minutes for that entire time (with the exception of a blessedly long nap in the middle). By 7:30 or 8 p.m. the barking had a whining, desperate quality to it, probably because they had run out of food and/or water. Also by 7:30 or 8 p.m. Tery and I were both contemplating taking an ice pick to our eardrums. That's when I broke down and called Animal Control, and can anyone blame me?
Of course no one works there on a Sunday evening so I left a message. On Monday they promised to mail her a warning. I virtually shimmied with glee, imagining her opening the envelope from the city, though why I thought she would take that any more seriously than any other punishment kind of escapes me at the moment. Then Tuesday came and as I got ready for the hearing, my neighbor the Alcoholic (L) across the way called to point out the large, steaming pile of turds on the Crackwhore's balcony. She urged me to take a picture of it and bring it to the hearing. I did, but no one there wanted to see it, despite my assurance that it wasn't in "Smell-o-Vision." The Crackwhore didn't show for her own hearing, just an indication as I said of how seriously she takes all of this. The Board's suggestions did make sense in that they believe she won't sit up and take notice until the city threatens to haul her dogs to the pound.
On Wednesday the heap of turds had not only not been cleaned up, it had been added to. Again I documented and emailed it to L, who forwarded it on to the board admininstrator (D), a friend of hers. He was very concerned about the health issue and urged us to get the city involved with this complaint as well. L called and got an officer dispatched to look at it, but then copied me on a follow-up mail she sent to D.
"Can't the HOA do anything about the mess? It's going to start to smell." I rolled my eyes, picturing her fanning herself with kid gloves, threatening to faint dead away from the horror of it all. You'd think the poo was going to come to life and leap onto her balcony. As anyone with pets can tell you, poo tends to dry up and harden over time, becoming less odiferous, not more. Take it from someone with 3 ferrets and 2 cats, all but one of whom have no compunction about doing their business outside of designated areas. I know from fecal material.
I imagine in some ways homeowners who can attain this level of histrionics over a pile of poo cause as many headaches for board administrators as the ones who refuse to follow rules.
The officer came, saw and wrote a warning. I doubted her credentials as one who works in the animal industry when she referred to ferret Griffyn as a rodent and foolishly tried to pet Pepita, who like the rest of her kind is extremely touchy and cranky about allowing human contact and isn't a bit shy about putting her vicious-looking curved beak to use. I was frustrated by her visit because she said the barking and the pooping had to be treated as separate violations requiring separate courses of action, rather than what they actually are, symptoms of the larger problem of animal neglect. The next step is more tickets, if necessary, which will eventually lead to issuing a summons for creating a public nuisance. Personally I wish we could just skip ahead to the threats of removal rather than enduring more interrupted sleep just to observe the due process of law. Stupid law.
It's not that I want the dogs taken away. Everyone knows I love animals. I believe there are no bad pets, only bad owners. I feel sorry for them when I see them stuck out there on the balcony all day. But then they start barking at the passing breeze and I feel homicidal (canicidal?) again. Tery feels the dogs are so unsocialized they are actually only one step away from being junkyard dogs. I even spent a minute or two feeling bad about persecuting the Crackwhore so relentlessly. It seemed hypocritical when my #1 absolute biggest peeve is people butting in and telling others how to live their lives. But the situation is different when someone's lifestyle has an adverse effect on your own (and I mean more adverse than staying up at night worrying about who is having sex with who and if they are the correct genders). Yes, we ourselves have 6 animals. But no one else knows we do because we have 6 quiet animals. 6 quiet animals who sleep at night and don't hang out on the balcony barking at everything that moves at 2 a.m. Even Pepita knows better and makes only quiet noises after the sun goes down (which is adorable and funny), when she makes noise at all. So yeah, I believe when your animals are waking me up every single night out of a sound sleep and sometimes keeping me awake for hours after, I have the right to step in and say "Enough." And I'll say as much to the Crackwhore if she ever tries to confront me about picking on her and her little angels. I vaguely worry about retaliatory complaints, until I remember that she will never find neighbors more considerate than us. I DREAM of having neighbors like us someday.
The extreme irony of all this is apparently her own father is a property manager. His response to all the complaints and fines was something along the lines of "That isn't how things are done." Which begs the question, why don't you let your darling drug-dealing daughter live in YOUR complex, sir?
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no subject
Date: 2005-08-19 02:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-19 03:09 pm (UTC)I hate humans too, but this one in particular.