Woof! Woof!

Many years ago when we lived in Finneytown, we had a neighbor who had a dog that barked a lot. This neighbor kept the dog outside most of the time and all he ever did was bark because he wanted to be inside. This dog was a large, white St. Bernard with a deep, bellowing bark. Appropriately enough, the dog's name was Boomer. Boomer's owner wasn't home much, and rarely kept him indoors. I felt bad for Boomer because all he ever did was stand at the door barking... barking for an owner to open the door. When I say Boomer barked a lot, I am not kidding. He barked at all hours of the day and night. To make the situation million times worse, Boomer favorite spot to bark was only about 30 feet from our bedroom window. It was awful... enough to drive us crazy!!!!!! One night about 2:00 or 3:00 A.M., Boomer was barking up a storm and nobody in our house was sleeping. Tami was pregnant at the time and was in no mood for games. She called the neighbor and firmly told him to take his dog inside. This guy was so oblivious that he said his dog wasn't barking. So Boomer was keeping the whole neighborhood awake in the middle of the night, and his owner was so clueless that he denied it was happening. Tami "Politely" (yes, that's sarcasm) told him to get his dog inside. Thankfully he did, or I would have feared for his physical well-being. Translated- Tami would have torn him limb from limb! After that night the situation didn't get any better. In fact, we even had to call the police a few times. On one occasion the dog barked constantly for more than 12 hours straight. Our neighbor received a citation for that one! Thankfully ol' Boomer and his owner moved away before further action had to be taken.

Admittedly I am not a dog person. However, I do not begrudge other people the pleasure of owning pets. All I ask is that a dog owner has enough consideration for neighbors who do not choose own one. You can have all the dogs you want. Just don't make me listen to them bark. I will also do my very best to be considerate of my neighbors and not do anything that would disturb them.

Back to Boomer... I wish I had the nerve to do something like this back in the day :-)