Scrooge Is Our Neighbor!

Our new loser neighbor is Scrooge! I actually thought Scrooge was gone, I was wrong. Here is the story. There has been an old man at the end of the street down below for years who caused all sorts of problems for the neighbors. He called the police on kids in the street with skateboards or if their ball went into his yard and they retrieved it. He let the air out of the neighbor's tires. He finally set up a video camera to prove that the kids were crossing a line by going into his driveway. Well, the good news is that his wife had his ass hauled off with a court order. Then she put copies of a restraining order in all the mailboxes. In case he was seen around her house, call the police. Finally, the kids can play in the street without the mean old man getting in their faces.

Along comes our very own loser neighbor. You have heard me complain about all his remoldeling without permits. Jackhammering concrete for weeks on end. Tearing out walls, cabinets, floors, and all the landscape and concrete in and around the house, putting in new, and replacing basically everything in the itty bitty house. I am not complaining because he did all that. That is fine. He could have waited til 8am or even told us that we would not be able to talk on the phone that day because of the noise. And he could have gotten a fricken permit for all the work he did. Now he asked the lower neighbor to take out some of his trees. And to top and thin out others. The neighbor said he would do it and along comes loser neighbor, who from now on will be referred to as Scrooge. Scrooge went over there with a guy from the city. Powerful guy he told the neighbor. He could get rid of the historical trees, while others in town cannot. I heard the "powerful" guy ask, "Are there any neighbors that may give us problems?" I believe that would be the neighbor on the other side of him and yours truly. We live in an historical Eucalyptus grove and we like it that way. He comes in and notices last weekend he can see the ocean...Wow, take out the century plus trees so Scrooge can see the ocean! He is the most narcissistic person I have met in a very long time.

It appears his mother is staying with him. I could be wrong, she could be his older, much older wife. We have tried to get Charlie/Steve to not bark at Scrooge, but how can we blame him for barking at such a miserable man? I have one of those cans of air for electronics. I spray it or reach for it and Charlie/Steve cries, but does not bark. I have been doing this for a couple of weeks, every time I hear his door open or his chain leash approaching. Charlie/Steve can be in a dead sleep in the sun on the deck or on the couch in the house and he hears Scrooge's dog's leash. He comes hauling ass out to bark at Scrooge's dog. People walk by all day and Charlie/Steve sometimes barks, but usually when there is a dog attached to a person. He stops once they pass our house. I have the mismatched beach towels up so we cannot see Scrooge and he cannot see us. But, I cannot stop my dog from barking at Scrooge. I assume when I am not here he barks to his heart's delight! Who could blame him, he is a DOG!

Right now, I am shaking. I am so fried I cannot even express how angry and upset my stomach is. We have been putting up the rest of the decorations and the ornaments on the tree and I came out here to untangle something with my glasses. I heard Scrooge and the old lady and I got the can of air. Charlie/Steve barked first. I squeeze the trigger on the air and he stopped. Then I hear the old lady say, "Shut up, you bad dog!" I had steam coming out of my ears! I told the old lady, that I could not see behind and down from my mismatched beach towels, that he is not a bad dog. They both got into it with me. Grandma said, "He is too a bad dog." Then I told her that he was protecting his territory. Scrooge, hiding behind grandma's skirt tails says, "He is too bad, he makes too much noise." I told him, "Why don't you just move out?" "You are the one making all the noise with your jackhammers, saws and all your other unpermited construction!" I told them it was nice up here til he moved in. I cannot remember much else, my heart was pounding in my ears. Katharine came out, David at the kitchen table looked shocked. I asked him if he heard what they said. He said, "No." But, he told me that Katharine was surprised to see me lose my temper this way....I told her what happened and she said, "He is a dog!" Out of the mouths of babes.

I poured myself a scotch to calm myself down. I am still pissed, with a knot in my stomach. If Scrooge was the kind of person, who would listen, I would talk to him like a normal human and tell him we are trying to get Charlie/Steve not to bark at him and maybe he could get a quieter leash! But, that will never happen. The war has begun, unfortunately. Not talking was okay with me, but I am not sure I will be able to hold my tongue now! That train has left the station.

Honestly, as I am typing this, I hear dogs barking all over the place. Charlie/Steve is not barking right now. He is playing with his toy, quietly in the house. How the hell am I supposed to keep my dog quiet when he has a deck to protect and run the length of while doing so. I will not put up screens to block him from looking out. And, I have truly been working on keeping him from barking at Scrooge and his dog in earnest. He can hear me tell Charlie/Steve not to bark, to sit, stay and good boy. Scrooge can hear all these commands. Does he appreciate it? No, he doesn't realize that keeping a dog quiet is no small feat. Unless, one has a dog like his that seldom barks, but barks at me plenty when I am out here at midnight. Charlie/Steve can care less at that point. Scrooge's dog barks when Scrooge is not home. His dog was barking when he and the old lady went into the house tonight, not mine. Mine only barks when he hears somebody coming near our property. It is not big, trust me. Once past our house, he goes about finding something else to do.

I am so angry right now. I am angry that when Scrooge told David that we should have our dog trainer call him, a couple of weeks ago, I didn't speak up and tell him to shut up and deal with it! We have such a great neighborhood, well we did til the twenty something narcissistic Scrooge moved in!!!! Scrooge needs to live in an association with CC&R's. Not up here in hippieville. We don't act like the stuck up stickybeaks in other areas. Most of the people up here are new families, with dogs, or the older people who have lived here for thirty years. We have had a great ride for eight years here. It is sad to think it is coming to an end because of Scrooge.

I am sorry this is happening. I wish he would sell his place now that he has fixed it up. He took one of the smallest, and the cheapest houses in Laguna Beach and made it it nice. I don't think he would be able to recoup what he put into it, because it it is so tiny. Unfortunately, he seems to like it here and he works from home! This truly sucks. We live so close to one another that we can hear everything each other says. I am not being nosy when I hear conversations. In fact, I usually turn up the radio, not to hear the conversations. But, the fact is, we know each other's business. Fact of life when you live viturally on top of one another.

So, I am asking for advice here. Should I be doing something differently? I am trying to keep an animal from barking due to one lousy complaining neighbor. We have had Charlie/Steve for a year this month and never has anybody complained before Scrooge moved in. How do you make a dog not bark? Is is possible to make a rat/fox terrier not bark at passing dogs? Or will he just protect his territory? Because at this point, I really don't want to hamper him barking at Scrooge anymore. I just want to let him bark til Scrooge has passed our house and let it go...But, to keep the peace, I will continue to try and keep him quiet. Is this dog abuse???