Party Hearty – Dog Abby

Dog Abby,

My husband and I recently moved to a new home in a nice neighborhood. The kids next door threw a party while their parents were away for the weekend, and it got a bit loud and rowdy. I want to talk to the parents about this behavior, but I am nervous about how they will respond. How do I approach this?

Neighbor in Nantucket

 

Dear Neighbor,

During the week before and several weeks after July 4th, there are a lot of scary booms and pops everywhere. Mom gives me allergy medicine, even though I am pretty sure I am not allergic to anything. I am not even sure what allergic means, unless it is that feeling of dread I get whenever there is a mean Chihuahua nearby. Still, even though it is loud and annoying, it is only a one-time thing, so mom does not and cannot do much about it.

But, when the neighbors were shooting off mortar shells last week and scaring me so bad that I guess I got allergies again, mom called the police to make them stop. She said that it was nowhere near July, so it was totally different. I guess this is kind of the same thing, but I may have a story that is exactly the same thing.

Once in awhile, the dog in the yard behind us will go outside and bark. I’ll bark back and we will have a good conversation, then we are both done, and we both go back inside. Sometimes his human will yell at him to stop and he does right away. No big deal. Dogs will be dogs, and we aren’t doing it all of the time.

There is an older dog next door that cried and cried all of the time whenever his people would leave. It was an ongoing thing that the neighbors did not know about, so when it continued happening over and over, mom was nice to enough to let them know. They were sad that their dog was sad, so they came up with some ways to make him less sad when they left. Mom does this with me, too, because as I am getting older, I have been getting more and more worried when I am alone. Mom gives me things to do to keep me busy and keep my mind off of things, and that seems to help. My neighbor friend is doing better, too.

As far as your neighbor’s party, is this an ongoing thing long after July that keeps happening over and over, or is it a one-rocket Fourth-of-July thing that has not happened since? If it has not happened again, then I would say to keep out of it. Kids will be kids, and it sounds like it was just a mistake. Most likely, the mom and dad already know about it and already yelled at them, like my friend in the back yard.

If it is an ongoing thing that happens over and over, then maybe you will have to do what mom did and — VERY NICELY — let the parents know so that they can help their kids. If mom had let the doggy next door continue to cry, that dog may very well have gotten hurt or hurt someone else. Same with your neighbor kids.

Love, Abby