Jul 27 2005
Sirens in St. Elmo
This morning I heard sirens from the distance and coming to a stop somewhere near by. I don’t know what the rukus was, but it made me think about the neighborhood that I live in and about how many people think this is a dangerous place to be.
I don’t find it dangerous at all, but I know that if it hadn’t been for my husband, it wouldn’t have been my first choice.
Now that I have lived here for almost 7 years, I am comfortable and love to tell people that St. Elmo is where it is at. I enjoy my neighbors and many of our friends live in this neighborhood. Taking walks always shows me something new and exciting happening here.
But sometimes, there are days….
On Sunday we called the cops to file a complaint about a boy abusing our dog.
All summer there has been a gang of kids (about ages 14 or 15) walking up and down our street. When they pass by, our dogs run outside to bark and keep their territory.
We have two dogs, a toy poodle, Lively, and a 35 pound mutt, Maple. Lively is very people friendly and Maple prefers us to anyone else.
Well, these kids have been seen walking up the street and as the dogs bark, they stop and laugh or attempt to pet Lively (Maple doesn’t get right up on the fence). It has never really given me cause for concern.
I don’t know if it is the heat, but on Sunday, something changed. The kids were taking their daily trek and some of them were on bikes. One particular kid was on his bike, carrying a long length of dried bamboo. As the kids passed by, Lively rush the fence, barking like always. The boy decided to use the bamboo to reach over the fence and hit Lively.
He did it a couple of times as he rode by and Lively ran away from the fence. I went out the front door, yelled at the kid that his action was unacceptable and he started to cuss me out. I kept standing there, watching him to get a good physical description and Damon called the police. I eventually decided that my mind wasn’t good enough so I grabbed the camcorder and vidoe taped the boy riding by and cussing at us.
The cops eventually came by and we gave him my statement and description. They said they would try to find the boy (apparently they had already stopped the friends) and give him a talking to.
We haven’t seen the group of kids since Sunday.
I still love St. Elmo. I just don’t like people abusing my dog.
We’ve had this happen a few times. Sticks and bricks get thrown at Bonnie often enough to make her aggressive toward kids on bikes and in groups. I (and Bob when he sees them) reprimand the kids when it happens… Most of these kids seem to be looking for a cheap way to get their aggression out.
Recently, I “loudly cautioned” a repeat offender that if he kept on doing that, Bonnie may retaliate. I didn’t see him for nearly two months after that.
I don’t want to be that “mean guy” on the corner with the angry dog. But there has to be a lines draw somewhere, because I don’t want my dogs conditioned by neighborhood kids to hate people who come up to our fence.