"Dan and Nancy Mahoney" wrote:

I'm so sorry to hear about that situation. Sometimes we *have* to look
out for other people's animals. There are all together too many people
out there who just have no idea what it really means to care for an
animal.

Next door's dog, a beautiful pure bred spaniel of some sort used to howl and
cry all day. It sounded absolutley heartbreaking. Eventually I had to
confront the neighbours - at first they though I was complaining about the
noise, but finally convinced them it wasn't the noise as such that was
bothering me, it was the welfare of the dog.

They said it was because the dog had seperation anxiety and that while the
dog, Bella, was being treated with "happy pills" the only real way to train
her out of it was to go out for increasingly long periods so she'd get used
to her people not being there.

I didn't konw whether to believe them or not, as I really don't know them,
and asked if it was OK with them if I could go into their yard and check on
Bella if she started crying. Thankfully they agreed.

And yes, I am pleased to report that Bella has lots of toys, food & water
and a nice kennel out there, and now only howls and cries if her humans
aren't home by the time it gets dark. And she's also used to me coming into
her yard to give her a pat and reassure her.

They seem to be good neighbours. But I couldn't have lived with myself
listening to Bella's heart wrenching cries and howls without checking up on
them - and thankfully they understand where I'm coming from. I can only hope
they'd do the same thing for Fluffy if for some reason we were out and she
started crying.

Yay for good neighbours.

Yowie