thought I'd update you on the situation!
-- Breif recap for those of you who didnt see the OP --
long story short... my neghibor is a jerk and complains about everything to the county - never confronts us about anything, only calls the county to comlpain. Among many other things he has copmlained about (property line, a drain pointing towards his yard)... he decided to complain that my dog is out in the middle of the night barking excessivley. The only thing - my dog is in between my wife and I in bed in the middle of the night. - On occasion, 1-2 times a month, she wakes up in the middle of the night and goes to the bathroom -if she see's something outside, she will bark a total of 2-3 times before I get her inside. He complained so much that animal control issued us a fine - we appealed and went to court.
------- on to the rest of the story.........
On his complaint, he listed about 14 days straight that my dog apparently was out in the middle of the night numerous times each night barking for 5 minutes each. One of the nights listed, he had her barking at 12:15am, 2:15am and 5:00 am - only problem - we were at a friends house until 3:30am -- and our dog is kept crated when we are not home - so it was impossible!
We went to court with a certified note from the friends house we were at and a note from our other next door neghibors, whom we are actually attached to saying that our dog has never been a problem, and they have never heard her barking in the middle of the night.
Also - since my wife works at a law office, she brought a lawyer who was free for us! - It may have also helped that this lawyer is really... really good and has recieved awards amongst his colleagues for his work! -
anyway.... our lawyer starts out and sets the guy up perfectly--- he caught him in a number of lies, and had the guy talking in circles - it was really entertaining - the animal control board and the councelor overseeing the process really enjoyed the show!
In a way - I even felt sorry for the guy because it had to be tough to be embarrased in court so badly!
The result - we dont know yet - but we assume we wont have a problem. - The board notifies us of their decision by mail!
-- But of course, we will have another issue with the guy.... we are building a fence (which I made sure I got the appropriate permits for and looked up the county land plat to make sure I wasnt over extending my property or anything) - the problem is he doesnt want my fence butting up against his fence... and wants me to leave a foot and a half between. His problem with that is, it's my property and I can do whatever I want to do!
We dug all our post holes yesterday and I'm sure we will be getting a note from the county, if not the police called on us today! lol
This should be another fun situation!!
