A family threatened to build a privacy fence along their yard where they just moving, in order to keep two nosey neighbors from giving their dog treats claiming the dog was too skinny.
So let’s start from the beginning, and you can feel free to comment at the bottom of this story. The incident was posted on Redditt’s “Am I the Ass****? (AITA) forum. The family had been inspecting their new home and let their dog run freely in the backyard with just a five-foot picket fence separating the homes.
And so began the drama. Two neighbors started feeding the dog treats, and the owner asked them not to feed their dog. Recently, the dog had been “poisoned by a lunatic” in their old neighborhood, and since then the dog has been on a special diet to help his system and organs recover. The one older gentleman neighbor immediately understood and pulled the treat back, but the elderly woman on the other side hissed at the dog owner (so to speak) and went on off on a rant.
I reiterated my request and why as politely as I could but she, instead, went on a tirade about how I shouldn’t be moving into a neighborhood with dog lovers if I don’t want my dog to be loved by them, that I was rude and that my dog was “too skinny and looks abused”. Yes, he looks too skinny, he is. He was poisoned and lost a ton of weight! This sent me over the top and I yelled that I was going to build a privacy fence along our property lines so that she could never interact with my dogs or family again. This apparently wasn’t the correct response, according to the person I’m buying the home from.
Reddit post
The older gentleman explained that the woman really was sweet, however she’s a widow, isolated and didn’t get much interaction with people. He suggested the dog owner relent a bit and let the woman give the dog some prescribed snacks and develop a good relationship.
Opinions about what the dog owner should do were admittedly quite varied, with many people saying the neighbors should always respect the dog owner’s wishes and maybe building a fence was a good idea. Still, a lot of comments (181 comments all together) explained how it’s so common for neighbors to complain about dogs, but in this case, there is a neighbor who actually wants to love on the pup. How unusual is that?
Another person opined that being enemies with one’s new neighbors can quickly get tiring. Who wants to have that type of atmosphere whenever the family is outside? Perhaps explaining the entire story again, and we do understand he already did, but when emotions fly high, comprehension so quickly becomes cloudy.
In response, the poster did respond:
Edit: I’ve read most of the comments and you guys are so supportive. I’m definitely going to try to mend things between myself and my neighbor and use some of your ideas to do it. Will post an update in a week or so. Hopefully things go well and I won’t have to shell out for the lumber
OP
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