I Have Conquered . . . My Neighbor!

No, not the neighbor with the purebred lab puppy.

Behind me lives an adorable family that unintentionally adopted three colossal labs (one male chocolate, two female black). We here in overpriced Palm Beach County are as close as you can get to not having any property, while still having some property.

Oh, and they have a pool, which takes up 40% of their practically-no-property property. And they don’t walk the dogs–ever. The dogs are overweight and rambunctious and bark a lot because . . . they don’t get enough exercise.

A fence and some shrubs separate us but the inevitable occurred this week: one of their dogs bit my Charles Hobson Booger, III, in the face. He bled for hours, but he’s fine. The upside is that I got to have a talk with my adorable neighbor, wherein I expressed my opinion that the dogs need to be walked. I’ve said on other occasions that their needs aren’t being met, and that’s why they act out, but evidently I didn’t make an impression.

This time was different. She immediately took them out, one at a time, and has walked them at least once each day. And they are completely different dogs now. They don’t run frantically, they’re not aggressive toward my greyhounds, and they don’t bark.

Funny thing: she said, "I know you’ve been working on me for a year."  I guess I’m not as subtle as I thought I was. But I was never angry, I always listened to her concerns, and I never gave up. And now, the dogs are so much better off.

For a moment, I actually felt like I changed the world a tiny bit.