Neighbors.

For as long as I can remember in my whole entire life, I have never lived beside anyone whom I had problems with....well, there was one. His wife was nice but he did some things that were cruel and vindictive to our pets. But I've forgiven him for that.

We have great neighbors right now. Wonderful people. Great to talk to. Not noisy. Helpful and trustworthy. Just good folks.

One of the neighbors are good, solid Christian people. They do good work in the community with and for the down and out. Their jobs take them out of their home many evenings every week. I admire them very much for their dedication.

They also have a few dogs. Sweet dogs. Really cute. One day, husband found them roaming out of their yard and felt he would do a good deed and round them up so they wouldn't run away or get caught by the dog catcher. Being that these dear folks work so hard at helping people, we try to overlook the dogs when they've been barking, too. But I think it has gotten out of hand.

One dog is a hunting dog, or shall I say a howling, hunting dog. The other is a snippy, yappy little thing. The other is a quiet, well-mannered large Irish Setter or Lab or some such thing. As I said, all lovely animals.

There have been weekends where the dogs have howled and barked for four consecutive days from around 3 in the afternoon to midnight. The folks needed to be away and of course, had to leave their animals behind. If there were supposed to be people looking after them or staying with them, they didn't show up. There have been many evenings too, when the dogs have just howled and howled as they most likely are lonely.

Husband has approached them about the noise of their dear pets, but they are refusing to admit to any such comotion. Of course, how would you know they were making noise if you're not there to hear it. We feel badly that we are making less-than-good relationships with our Christian neighbors. They said no one else has complained. I'm wondering if I'm expecting too much from these folks though. Just because they're "Christians", does that mean they shouldn't have dogs that bark. I don't think so. But still, I really do expect more from them. I expect admission of guilt, I expect humility and I expect them to offer an apology...or at least to say they will try and do better in the future in keeping them silent.

Perhaps we should offer a gift certificate to the local obedience school.....for the pooches, at least. Maybe that would make us better neighbors. Or perhaps we should offer to take the animals for walks, as no one at their place seems to have time for these poor beasts.

I guess WE just need to learn patience and forgiveness and long-suffering ourselves. It's always so much easier to see our neighbors faults isn't it....easy to point out what is wrong with them!!!

Alas, in the book of Matthew, chapter 7 verses 3-5, Jesus makes his case quite clear when he says:
" “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye[a] when you have a log in your own? 4 How can you think of saying to your friend,[b] ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye."

Yep. That about says it all. I'll go now and lick my wounds and howl at the moon with Rover.