Delicious Ambiguity

My alarm went off at 8:00 this morning.  I sleepily rolled out of bed and went into Skogen's room to turn his light on and start the process of getting him up for preschool.  I went to the bathroom and let the dogs out into the backyard.  I then walked back into Skogen's bedroom to make sure he was awake.  Right as I sat on his bed, someone pounded on the door.  I glanced out Skogen's window to see if I could see who was here and I saw a police car in my driveway!

I ran down to the door and there was a police officer frantically pounding on the door and the window.  All I could think of was, one, why doesn't he just use the doorbell, and two, that maybe there was some kind of emergency with Erik and they were coming to tell me that he was in the hospital or something.  I opened the door and the police officer asked, "Hello, are you the wife or husband of this house?"  I thought for a minute that it was some kind of joke (Or maybe he couldn't tell that I was a girl?  Or maybe he thought I was a lesbian?), but when I laughed and said, "I'm the wife." He didn't even crack a smile.  He then told me that someone had called and complained about my dogs in the backyard barking steady for the past hour.  I glanced at the clock, it was only 8:10!  Surprised, I said, "Oh wow, that's strange because my dogs have only been out for five minutes.  It must not have been my dogs."  The police officer acted as if he didn't believe me, but asked if I knew of any other dogs on the block.  I pointed at a few houses that had dogs, meanwhile Barkley! in the backyard had started barking like crazy (great timing, right?).  The police officer said he would walk the block and make sure the others with dogs knew that someone had put in a compliant.  Just at that time, another police officer came from behind my house and yelled, "Is she going to put her dogs in?"  (No wonder Barkley! was barking!  This police officer had been in our backyard!)  I nodded as the police officer at the door said, "Yeah, she is, but her dogs have only been out for a few minutes."  The police office who had been trampling in my backyard yelled back, "That doesn't matter.  Ever since her dog moved into the neighborhood, it eggs all the other dogs in the neighborhood on."  Then he looked at me and yelled, "Mam, just put your dogs in.  I know your dogs are barking because I was just in your backyard and they were barking at me."

I'm pretty sure I rolled my eyes at this point and thought that maybe if it was so urgent that I let my dogs in RIGHT NOW, that they should maybe let me get to the back door to let my dogs in, but instead they said that it would only take a few more minutes because they would have to make the complaint against me since my dogs were currently barking and that they needed my name (first, middle, and last) and my phone number.  I wanted to ask the police officer who was still standing in my yard how he knew my dog egged all the other dogs on and I wanted to ask them how they could make a false complaint about me (because my dogs had only been out for five minutes!), but I knew that my dogs like to bark and so I didn't argue or ask any questions.  As they left, the one police officer yelled, "Put your dogs in!"  As if I wasn't going to after this mess!  They got in the police car and quickly drove off, obviously not going to any of the other houses that the first police office told me he would.

Being the over-analyzing person that I am, I couldn't stop thinking about the whole mess, especially since when I went to put the dogs in, Barkley! was lazily lounging quietly in the sun and Summit was eating rocks and pouncing on sticks.  I was upset about the whole thing.  I stood in our front window and glanced around the neighborhood.  Who made the complaint? Why would they lie about my dogs barking for the past hour?   Are they just targeting us because Barkley is a pit bull and no one wants a pit bull in the neighborhood?  Why didn't the police officers go around to all the other houses like they said they would?   A little too much effort making quota for the day or impressing the bosses and not enough serving the neighborhoods and caring about the truth or getting to the bottom of problems.

I'm not sure if I'll ever figure any of it out and I really can't promise that the barking will get any better (is it possible to teach an old dog new tricks?), but at least I can mark getting a complaint filed against me off of my list for the day. :)  Ha, and I have to laugh as I hit, "Publish," I'm listening to a dog outside right now barking like crazy - and it's not either of mine.