My Neighbour Has a Go at Someone
November 9th 2008 21:00
Photo by Matteo Gossi. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Coming home from work one day, I noticed my neighbour was looking stressed. Before I could say anything she told me to look out from her balcony. I took at look but all I could see was a ute with a dog in the back of it. I wasn’t sure what the problem was. By now, my neighbour was almost in a panic. Mystified, I asked her what was going on. She told me the dog had been standing in the sun for hours, with no water. She was worried about the dog and had placed a plastic take away container containing water in the ute for the dog to drink. She also left a note saying “Give your dog water”.
I tried to calm my neighbour down. After all, she did the right thing by giving the dog water to drink. But she was almost frantic with worry. Soon we saw a man approach the ute. He read her note and threw it along with the water away. By now, my neighbour was almost having a heart attack. She was so angry.
Some people might say she should have minded her own business. Sure, the dog was in danger of dehydration but she had solved the problem by giving it water. So was it necessary for her to leave the note and to get so upset?
I’m a bit of a recluse so I try to keep out of other people’s business. If I knew an animal was being abused I would call the RSPCA rather than confront the owner. There’s a lot to be said for protecting yourself.
But my neighbour’s note reminds me of a funny web site I recently came across:
passive agressive notes web site
I must admit my neighbour and I used to be guilty of leaving so-called passive aggressive notes under certain neighbours' doors. Usually it was to ask a certain person to be quiet. While some people would consider this behaviour to be passive aggressive in the sense this behaviour appears to be cowardly, we resorted to this tactic because we wanted to remain anonymous and to protect ourselves from a possible confrontation. Our philosophy was all the person needed to know was others could hear their music; it was irrelevant who they were.
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Comment by Kleonaptra
Kalikapsychosis
I keep my nose out of it unless theres definite abuse - like the dog actually collapsing or something. How long was it there for? When your friend gave it water, did it drink?
Generally, people with dogs in trucks are not people you want to mess with.
My mums a passive agressive note writer. We had ongoing issues with the hunting dogs next door, he ended up being left with only one puppy. It came over one day and mum locked it up so the horses wouldnt kick it. She intended to leave a note in his mailbox, and I freaked - this agressive drunken guy comes home, cant find his dog and finds a note the letter box that says "WE HAVE YOUR DOG" I was like, no way! When he comes home we will take the puppy home, no cryptic notes! Not unless you want to get shot!
Comment by Queenie
Quirky Folk
Quirky Queenie
Thanks for your amusing comment.
While I admire people like your mum and my old neighbour who have the guts to speak up, I also believe in only doing so if you're not going to put yourself in danger. As you know, people can be volatile.
As for your questions, like I said, my neighbour said the dog had been outside for hours. I don't know if the dog actually drank. In hindsight, I think if I was that concerned I would have left some water and then called the RSPCA.