I can totally see where your neighbours got that impression and it has nothing to do with _____. Maybe the fact that you want to torment your neightbours because you are an irresponsible pet owner tipped them off.
I once lost a great cat to dog(s) coming into my yard to kill him.
I currently have two dogs, one of which (by a great stretch of the imagination) might attack a stray cat in my yard. If that happened, I’d be sorry about it, but it would be completely the fault of the cat owner for letting their animal stray.
Spongemom, I know this pile-on probably comes as a huge shock to you. You obviously posted thinking that most people would take your side. Let this pile-on be a wake-up call that you are not thinking clearly.
You are in the wrong. Apologize to your neighbor. Dont add hypocrisy to the list, by claiming your neighbors are too good to apologize then not do it yourself.
Excalibre, it is against the rules to wish death on another poster. Consider yourself warned.
Hey Spongemom,
I am very sorry for your loss. However, what the above-posters have said is true. What could the dog owners have done? It is horrible, but your cats kept going into the dog’s secured backyard.
The other thought that has struck me that you are feeling very vindictive towards the dog and the owners. It is pretty clear that you have already contemplated litigation (and dismissed it) and are now contemplating other means to get back at the dog. If I owned the dog and had any inkling of the hostility you felt towards the dog, I would not apologize out of fear that you would attempt to use it as an admission of liability or negligence. It wouldn’t work, but I would be afraid that you would use it to harass me or make my life as miserable as possible because my dog was doing what dogs are apt to do–eat cats. It may well be that your neighbors feel this way as well.
Question, what if your neighbor raised rats and the rats kept getting into your yard only to be eaten by your cats? Would you at some point start to feel resentment towards the rat owners because they can’t control the rats?
Spongemom, this probably is not going the way you had hoped. My advice to you is to ask the powers that be to close this thread, so this evidence of your unbelievable cluelessness will quickly fall off the first page.
I hope you have learned something from this pit experience.
Next, IMMEDIATELY beg your neighbors forgiveness for being such an incredible asshole, and promise them that you will not be so irresponsible in the future.
Then apologize to us for thinking we were stupid enough to tolerate your kind of stupidity.
Then, apologize to your remaining cats for failing to take care of them in a proper manner.
Finally, try to be a better person/neighbor/pet owner/Doper in the future.
O my fucking god, Spongemom is training to be a vet!!!
(link removed --Giraffe)
Un. Fucking. Believable. Words fail. They really do. Oh, wait, here’s a couple.
Spongemom, study up reeaall hard in the classes on animal behavior. And think twice before advising your clients to set bothersome dogs loose, and to egg the houses of their owners. What a chucking fucklehead.
May I suggest we back off? While I agree with the overall sentiment in the thread, we don’t need to prove which of us can come up with the nastiest insults to hurl at Spongemom. And we really don’t need to be invading her forum.
Spongemom, I’m sorry for your grief, and I hope you get a chance for some serious introspection here about how you need to deal with your animals and with your neighbors.
Daniel
She’s from Kansas. That’s a suprise.
Invading? Where do you get that? She invited us in. Check out the link at the bottom of the OP.
She stepped on a kittens’s head and then let it starve to death. And she wants to be a vet. I’d say she’s fair game.
Sorry that your cats are dying, however it is up to you to keep them on your own property. Although local laws may vary, in my area you would be liable if the neighbors dog on their own property were to eat your cat and have gastrointestinal problems as a result.
I would add that in my locality you would be investigated on animal neglect/cruelty charges based on what information you gave in the OP.
Lefty you are one of the Dopers I most admire and it shames me a little to be chastized by you. As usual your reasoned approach is the superior one. But for fuck sake she put this in the pit. It is one of the most incredibly stupid things I have ever seen.
I advised her on how to end this. I told her to ask that the thread be closed. She chooses not to do it. The consequences of that are on her head.
As to invading her forum, I would not have posted the link had it not been availible in her profile. I agree that looking for outside info on a Doper is innapropriate, but when they make it availible in there profile it is information that they want others at the Dope to know.
I am sorry for the vitriol, but She put this in the Pit, she can stop it. Maybe if enough of us point out what an unreasonable ass she is she will start to question her behavior. I doubt it but maybe.
I for one would be interested to hear her response to the comments in this thread.
In regards to this, there is nothing to indicate that she has logged on since her last post, or is even aware that a pile-on is taking place
Well, she can learn not to drop “Stupidity Bombs” in the Pit and leave. If I started a thread I would certainly wait around to see how it is received. If I did not have time to wait I would post it later when I did have time.
Exactly…I’m not chastizing (I think you’re great, too, actually!) but rather saying that I think she’s going to get the message loud and clear next time she logs on, and we probably don’t need to pound it in any harder. Despite her (very serious, in my eyes) mistakes, I think she’s grieving now, and is likelier to hear the message better the fewer insults it’s mixed in with.
Yeah, it’s in the Pit, so insulting her is allowed. I’m just not sure it’s adviseable.
(And I know you’re not telling folks to invade her messageboard; sorry if that wasn’t clear. I was just suggesting that folks not use the link as an opportunity to do that.)
Daniel
askeptic, I removed the link in your post (to spongemom’s profile on another message board). I don’t want people showing up on that board to harrass spongemom based on this thread.
This isn’t a warning, since I don’t think your intention was to start a board war, but please don’t do it again.
The link to her forum was in her signature. That’s not an invitation to take this thread over there. And even if it was, don’t do it.
I think you guys need to ease up on Spongemom, too. What happened was horrible but ripping her a new asshole isn’t going to bring back any of the cats. When she logs back on and reads the responses, and when we see her response to all of this, then we can see where to go from there. If she posts new information, or seems to realize where she went wrong, that’s one thing, or if she comes back with curses, that’s another.
1000x a poster has posted something and then come back and realized just how horrible it sounded. I’m not saying **Spongemom ** will necesarily bring any evidence to light to exonerate her, but she might. And this wicked pile-on is a bit much. You all have assumed that the kitty that was hurt was personally stepped on by **Spongemom ** and personally allowed to starve to death, but the fact remains, we don’t know the details.
If she really is broken up about it, then we’ve told her what she did wrong and hopefully she’ll learn from it. However, screaming invectives at any human only makes them get defensive.
Anecdotal. What specific state has “Too Good For You” on the license plate?
If my dog were to kill a neighbor’s cat (unlikely, as he’s a spaniel puppy), I would probably be too embarrassed at first to talk to them, even with condolences. the second time, I’d probably be angry with the neighbor for allowing this scenario to continue, and the third-fifth times…in shock at the unwillingness to change.