I share a duplex with a couple in their mid-20’s, and their two dogs and cat. I have two cats and a dog, and I take great care of them. I wish I could say the same for the neighbors and their pets.
They like to attach their excitable dog to my dog’s run, then let him bark wildly and without cease. The dog is doing that right now, and it’s 9:30 a.m. I tried to get them to do something about it, but they won’t open their door. When their dog flips out continuously like this on my dog’s run, it makes the cable sag badly, and the dog has even broken the lead from the run. They were “very, very sorry” and assured me they would replace it, but never did, which is fairly typical for them. My main concern here (besides getting the dog to shut the hell up so my brain doesn’t explode) is that someone bad will see my dog on the run one day while I’m at work, and think she’s the barky one, and do something bad to her.
Last Saturday, they had some overnight guests who had brought their dogs as well, and chained them up outside my bedroom window. They barked their heads off, because their chains had gotten tangled, and they couldn’t have reached the water bowl, even if someone had bothered to fill it. Someone finally did; it was me.
Their male cat is not fixed, nor are their two male dogs. Since their male kitten has reached that age when he needs to be neutered, I think he’s likely started marking territory inside their house. Whatever the reason is, they’ve decided that it’s okay to leave this poor kitty outside all day long, and never feed or water it. I’ve taken over feeding it, because it was literally starving. He also has worms and fleas, which I, of course, control in my own pets. All the frontline in the world isn’t going to do much if their cat keeps giving mine fleas.
As a side note, the animals aren’t the only issue with these people. They once left a rotting couch sitting in the yard for at least two months, with their rotting, wet, bug-filled couch cushions sitting on our shared patio. They continuously leave their trash everywhere outside, and can’t be bothered to put their cigarette butts in an ashtray that I’ve provided (I don’t smoke cigarettes). They usually don’t even take their trash to the curb for pickup; if I don’t do it, it doesn’t get done. They’ve got all sorts of non-trash crap all over the place as well, from a baby swimming pool filled with junk, to wet bags of charcoal. I’ve found silly string and cigarette butts in my garden, a place that I eat food from. Don’t get me started on when they dumped out cartons of dead nightcrawlers and left them to rot, and I had to clean that up.
I don’t like playing the martyr one bit, but when these people won’t take care of their animals, I feel obligated to help the animals, but it’s getting old, and expensive. I know this is somewhat ranty, but what I really want is advice, not Pit denizens telling me how right/wrong I am. So: what can I do about the poor neglected kitty? What can I do about this dog that won’t shut the hell up? I’m done playing nice with them, and would be more than happy to contact any appropriate authorities. I’ve tried to solve things like an adult, but it can be quite difficult to talk to them when they won’t open the door. They apparently also don’t respond when I stand outside their door and scream for them to “shut that dog the f*ck up!”, so I’ve tried both the adult and child approaches here, and I’m done.
Who can I call? What can I do?