How I Scared the Neighbors

So my neighbors hate me now.

Okay, so hate might be too strong of a word.

There was a disruption in the neighborhood and it centered around me....


and my dog.

Drats.

I haven't even had a chance to make friends... okay, acquaintances with these folks, and now they hate, dislike, okay, have a bad feeling about me.

And the problem is, it truly is entirely my fault. And I don't like being at fault.

Last week, I decided to take advantage of the warm weather and bring the kids outside and wash my car. Paul was in the play yard, Grace was scampering around, playing with the bucket of sudsy water, and I thought, "hey, I'll let Toby out of the backyard and he can run around a bit."

And here's the thing, Toby is a super well-mannered dog. At our old place, he totally knew his boundaries and I could let him outside and never even have a second thought.

Well, now he isn't quite as clear about boundaries and he really hasn't been out front much besides going for a walk.

So here I am washing away, keeping one eye on one kid, and the second on the other... when I realized that Toby has wandered away. Wandered away right up our neighbor's driveway. We are at the end of a cul-de-sac, so the neighbor is really somewhat across the street.

I call him immediately and he responded and ran right home. I glanced at the neighbors and it seemed no one was out and about, so I figured, "no harm, no foul" and didn't worry about it again.

A little while later, my old neighbor calls. My old neighbor, from my old neighborhood, where people liked me and I knew them, and trusted them. Oh but enough boo-hooing.

So now, I'm on the phone, drying my car, watching the kids AND the dog when I notice the neighbor's daughter is out, along with her neighbor's daughter, and it looks like a parent or two. They are all standing out and looking towards my house. I assumed they were just interested because we were all out and that isn't usually the case. I would have gone over and said something, but I was on the phone. I thought, "bummer, this is my chance to get to chat with the neighbors," but I really couldn't interrupt my neighbor who was telling me about her kitchen catching fire that morning. (I guess my story pales in comparison to that).

Fast forward an hour. We're cleaned up, inside, finishing lunch when the doorbell rings.

It's my neighbor. Who wants to talk to me. It didn't sound good.

And it wasn't. She goes on to tell me how my dog had run not only to their house, but into the backyard, scared her daughter, who ran to the neighbors. The neighbors all went out onto their upper deck to watch the big scary dog from their backyard. My neighbor was in her house afraid and went around and shut up her windows because of the big scary dog.

Sigh.

I apologize. Many times. I try to explain that Toby is very gentle and usually well-mannered.

I apologize again. I invite her to bring over her kids to meet him and they can see he is a nice dog.

And I promise it won't happen again.

But I'm still the reason that a "wild" dog was roaming the neighborhood.

We went over to their house the following day with Toby (on a leash!) to apologize again. But they were not home. We realized later that they had left for the weekend. We went to their neighbor's house as well, but nobody answered.

I know we should still go over, but now almost a week has passed and its awkward. But I guess not as awkward as living here for many more years and not making contact.

I just keep reminding myself that it took about six years at our other place before we really got to know all our neighbors. I just have to have patience.... or hope they all move!