From the Styx by Peggy Tibbetts

This is Part 10 in the Crazy Bitch series about our Akbash/Lab mix Venus. She has Canine Compulsive Disorder (CCD) with aggression. Links to the previous episodes can be found at the end of this post.

Please note that the incidents described here are part of an ongoing investigation therefore some names have been changed and/or omitted.

If The Dogs Could Talk

They would tell us what goes on around our house when we’re not home.

Looking back at that point in time – November 2007 – we didn’t see any outward signs in Venus or Zeus that the hostility from the Bullys was having an effect on them. The signs were there, I’m sure. We just didn’t see.

As Bullys’ mischief turned more aggressive, these two very sensitive dogs most certainly sensed the bad energy and felt stressed. It’s the constant drip, drip, drip over time that does real psychological damage.

Even though our petition was successful, the recall had to go before the voters in the Town election scheduled for April 1, 2008. We had a long campaign ahead of us.

In mid-November 2007, we went to Hawaii for a week. Ema has taken care of our dogs forever so we knew she could handle them and the Bullys. We hadn’t had any complaints in 2 months, though we hardly ever left the dogs at home and when we did Venus wore the bark collar. Besides that, I hadn’t posted anything about the Mayor’s misdeeds on my blog during those 2 months.

We left on a Saturday. Ema came over and took Venus to her house. So Zeus wouldn’t be lonely, she left her calm, stable, blind Husky named Koho at our house. Koho and Zeus are good buddies. They sleep a lot and they don’t bark. Koho has stayed overnight many times so he’s very comfortable at our house. She checked on them at least twice a day and walked them once a day. She thought everything was fine until Wednesday morning. She found a warning ticket on the front door. It was dated the previous day.

She took the ticket to the police station and explained to the Chief she was taking care of the dogs while were out of town. She also talked to Officer Tuttle. He said Mr. Bully filed a complaint on Tuesday about our dogs barking on Monday night. He showed her the complaint which stated: “Tod and Peggy Tibbetts’ dog began barking incessantly at about 7:20 pm.” He implied it was the same dog they’ve been complaining about.

“He’s lying,” Ema told them. “Venus has been at my house since Saturday morning. My dog Koho was there with Zeus and they don’t bark unless they’re provoked.”

Then Tuttle said, “When I parked in their driveway yesterday both dogs were barking.”

She couldn’t believe it happened again. “My Husky’s blind. So when you parked in the driveway you obviously freaked him out.”

Ema was pissed. She accused the Bullys and the police department of harassment, except she used her loud outside voice. She wound up with a citation. She took Koho and Zeus to her house.

On Saturday she came to our house, washed her Durango, and played the car stereo. Mr. Bully marched over and told her to turn off the music and leave. “You tried to trick me by switching dogs but I showed you.”

Furious, Ema chased him off our property. She should have called the cops but she didn’t trust them. They were part of the problem.

When we arrived home Sunday she told us about the whole fiasco. We felt horrible that she was harassed, too. But we noticed the dates on the citation didn’t match the dates on Bully’s complaint form. We told her to take it to court.

There were no complaints in December. But as usual we hardly ever left the dogs and when we did Venus wore the bark collar. We were like Bullys’ trained dawgs. I didn’t post anything on my blog about the Mayor either.

The court date was January 10, 2008. Tod went with Ema. They met with the Town Prosecutor and explained everything. And I mean everything. They showed her the confusing dates on the citation and the complaint form. She dismissed the charge.

The very next day at around 5:30 pm I was home alone. The dogs were outside. Venus barked. I went to get her but the phone rang. Caller ID flashed Bullys’ number. I answered. Bully hung up. Like a good little trained dawg I brought her inside.

Guess Bully found out we got the charge dismissed and had a little tantrum. Creepy.

On Sunday we went skiing and left the dogs outside. It was warm and snowing. Mid-day Ema got a phone call from Officer Whittle. Yet another cop. Our town has a huge turnover in the police department. He told her to go to our house and put the dogs inside because Bully had complained. When Ema got to our house she discovered fresh boot tracks in the snow outside our fence. Obviously a man had walked back and forth in our yard several times. She reported the boot tracks to Officer Whittle.

He said it wasn’t him and added, “It could’ve been anybody.”

“It’s obvious that Bully provoked the dogs to bark,” she told him. But he seemed unimpressed with her suspicion. We checked out the boot tracks when we got home. Sure looked that way to us.

Several weeks passed by. We kept up our trained dawg regimen – blah, blah, blah, bark collar. We only left them outside when we went downhill skiing, which was only on Sundays and not every Sunday. Eight hours is too long to leave them indoors. Luckily I work at home and the Bullys were gone all day during the week taking their hostility with them. However when they came home, the dogs wanted in. They were indoors so much they didn’t grow winter coats. Their whole routine had changed. It was a really cold winter. Zeus had trouble keeping warm. He was lethargic and seemed depressed. I’m sure that’s when his thyroid started acting up. We just didn’t know it yet. He barked more. We thought he was stressed out. Veterinary researchers don’t know what causes canine hypothyroidism. However it is an autoimmune response. Stress turned inward.

Venus handled the stress differently. She became anxious and territorial. She barked at Bully and his middle school-age boys when they were outside. She was trying to tell us something. She developed a mistrust of all middle school-age boys. We interpreted her behavior as a sign that Bully and his boys were provoking them.

We were busy with the recall campaign. Most of my blog posts were about Town Election info, encouraging people to run for office, nothing specifically about the Mayor. Until February 13. I posted an exposé about the Mayor’s illegal fence, complete with photos. 

Punishment was swift.

On Sunday, February 17, we went downhill skiing. The weather forecast was sunny and warm. The dogs had been cooped up for weeks, so we left them out with the bark collar. We came home to an all too familiar scene. The dogs were agitated. Zeus was barking. Venus was hoarse and whining. Five minutes later a cop car pulled up.

Officer Muddle came to the door and asked Tod for his driver’s license. “I’ve had a complaint about your dogs barking. I’ll have to issue a citation,” he said.

Tod held up the collar. “She was wearing a bark collar.”

“I parked in front of your house for ten minutes and both dogs were barking,” Muddle said.

“So you provoked them. And it’s not the first time the police have provoked my dogs. As far as I’m concerned this is harassment,” Tod said and refused to hand over his license.

Muddle returned to his vehicle to write out the citation. Mr. Bully came running outside and yelled at Muddle, “You better be writing them a ticket. Nothing has ever been done about this!”

The timing of my blog post and the citation was very interesting. So what did we think was going on?

Even though Dittohead had resigned from the Board, we knew he was close friends with the Mayor. And he was mad at us for filing the recall petitions. We believed that Dittohead, and perhaps another Board Member, were encouraging Mr. Bully to harass us about our dogs. It was a game to them. We also knew the Mayor owned a police scanner. We believed he was handling the individual cops. A source had told me that the Mayor had said, “I have the Police Department in my pocket.”

During that same period I had also received several harassing emails from friends of the Mayor, his son, perhaps even the Mayor himself. All the emailers, except one, disguised themselves with handles like “concerned citizen”, but we traced the IP addresses.

What a soap opera!

There were 4 positions open on the Board and only 3 people were running. I decided to run and turned in my paperwork on Friday, February 22. Two days later, on Sunday, Tod let the dogs out at 6:30 am, I was in the shower. Tod said Venus barked a couple times then stopped. The phone rang. It was Mr. Bully. He hung up before Tod answered. She barked again. The phone rang again.

“What’s going on?” I yelled. I didn’t make it to the phone before the machine answered. It was Bully – again. He hung up. We left the dogs inside while we went skiing that day.

At work on Monday, Tod told Ema about the hang-up calls. She called me crying, “I’m really worried that Bully’s going to hurt the dogs, Mom. To be honest he scared the crap out of me that day he came over and yelled at me. Those hang-up calls are illegal. He’s harassing you. You HAVE to file a complaint.”

I knew she was right. “I’m just concerned it’ll make things worse.”

“Things are pretty bad already,” she said. “How much worse can it get?”

“Oh it can get a whole lot worse. Believe me,” I said. But I filed a complaint the next day.

I met with the Chief, who had only been on the job for about 7 months. He didn’t really know the whole history. When he read my complaint he said, “This is about the barking dog citation you got last week.”

“No. It’s about the Bullys harassing us,” I said.

“And they’re upset about your dogs barking,” he said.

An argument bubbled up, conjuring thoughts of Ema. I didn’t want another citation so I switched gears and described an overview of the situation, including our suspicions. I even gave him names of sources to check out. “There should be an investigation.”

But he was dismissive. His attitude was we have dogs and dogs bark and people have the right to complain. 
 
“Beyond that if there’s harassment involved here, that’s a matter for the courts, not the police department,” he said.

“What about the hang-up calls?” I asked.

“That’s a statutory criminal offense,” he replied. “You have two choices. You can press charges and the matter goes to court, in which case it’ll just look like you’re retaliating for your citation. Or we can schedule a mediation session.”

Some choices. I tossed up my hands. “I have no clue what to do. I’ve never been through anything like this before. Bully has a serious anger management problem. I’m concerned about the safety of my dogs and my family. And I just want the harassment to stop.”

“Then I think we should give mediation a try,” he said.

I agreed. We scheduled it for March 11. I figured at least we’d finally have the chance to tell our side of the story.

Boy was I wrong!

Stay tuned for Part 11

Part 1: Tale of Two Dogs

Part 2: Dog Bomb

Part 3: Sick Puppy

Part 4: Torn Between Two Dogs

Part 5: The Dog Whisperer

Part 6: Panicky Pup

Part 7: Akbash Awakening

Part 8: The Two-Headed Dog Visits the Vet

Part 9: No Bad Dogs – Only Bad People

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