From the Styx by Peggy Tibbetts

This is Part 12 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.

First They Tried to Silence Venus, Then They Tried to Silence Me

We followed the 8:00 pm to 6:45 am curfew with Venus. We let Zeus do as he damn well pleased. The Bullys had said it wasn’t about him. We left the dogs out only when we were gone on Sundays because we knew would be gone too long for them to be indoors. Venus wore the bark collar. In the after burn of the mediation session the one thing we always came back to, the nightmare that haunted us was that Bully had admitted those were his boot tracks in the snow outside the fence. He had provoked Venus and Zeus. And so had the police. 

We rationalized that since it didn’t happen every day it probably wouldn’t have any lasting negative impact on Venus and Zeus. But it would have to stop. Which, of course, was the problem. Would it stop? We believed the police harassment would stop. We could only hope the Bullys would stop.

Dogs don’t rationalize. They react to conditioning. Almost every time we drove off in the pickup and left them outside, someone – whether it was the police or the Bullys – harassed them and/or provoked them to bark. To complicate matters for our already anxious and obsessive Venus, she was wearing a shock collar and getting buzzed every time she barked. By any definition that is torture. Animal cruelty. She had become increasingly territorial.

After the first mediation session, Tod took the battery out of the bark collar and threw it away. We will always regret that we ever allowed her to be tortured that way.

The final mail-in ballot count for the Town Election happened on April 1. We lost. The recall lost. I lost my bid for a seat on the Board. While I consoled my comrades on the committee I was secretly relieved. At least it was over. Maybe the harassing emails would stop. Maybe the Bullys, the Board Members and their minions would stop harassing us.

We brought a professional Mediator with us to the second mediation session on April 3. I wish I could get that hour of my life back. What a waste of time!

Of course, Mr. and Mrs. Bully objected to the Mediator. But he, being a Mediator, convinced them he would be equally fair to them.

Chief asked if things had gotten any better.

Mr. B begrudgingly said they hadn’t had any problems with us since the last session.

Mrs. B added, “But eventually they’ll go back to letting Venus bark again. That’s the way it always works. It gets better for a little while then it just gets worse again.”

“Then what are we doing here?” Tod asked.

“We’re here because you’re a Board Member and you get special treatment,” Mr. B said.

“Yeah,” Mrs. B piped up. “I’d like to know why this meeting had to wait until after the election.”

I pushed my chair away from the table. “I thought we were here to talk about our dog barking.”

“That’s exactly why we’re here,” said Chief. “So let’s move on.”

The Mediator said, “The Tibbetts are here because they are eager to resolve this problem. From my understanding of the circumstances that brought us here, the Tibbetts have responded and are responding to your complaints about their dog barking. The fact that they’re here is all the evidence you need that they are not being shown any favoritism or special treatment.”

“If you’re just going to take their side, we’re leaving,” Mrs. B snapped.

The Mediator encouraged Mrs. B to speak her mind and assured her we’d all listen.

She lashed out at Tod. She said it was obvious he didn’t want to be there, that he was “seething.”

The Mediator asked Tod for his response.

He said, “After everything we’ve done to appease you, you still have the nerve to say we’ll just let Venus bark again like somehow we’re making her bark just to piss you off.”

“Well are you?” Mrs. B asked.

“Sure looks like that to us,” Mr. B sniped.

The Mediator held up his hands. “Well this isn’t going to resolve anything. Mrs. Tibbetts hasn’t had the chance to say anything. I think it’s her turn.”

I said, “I find it interesting that they say things have gotten better lately. Because nothing has changed. We’re not doing anything differently.”

“Did you get the citronella collar?” Chief asked.

“No,” I replied. “You said Mr. Bully’s logs showed that Venus was not barking excessively according to the ordinance. I did a little research and the citronella collars are less effective than the shock collar.”

“What about the dog trainer then?” Chief asked.

“No,” I replied. “You said yourself that you can’t train a dog not to bark. Venus is trained. I train my own dogs.

Mr. B sneered. “Well you failed miserably.”

I nodded. “Thank you.”

The Mediator told Mr. B he’d like to hear more from him.

Mr. B said, “I’d just like the Tibbetts to stop being so hostile toward us. They don’t speak to us. They don’t even wave anymore. With Tod being on the Board and all they set a bad example for our boys.”

The Mediator looked at us. “Well how about it? Do you think can ease the tension and restore a more friendly atmosphere?”

“No,” Tod and I said in unison.

The Mediator asked if we cared to elaborate on our feelings.

“No thanks,” Tod said.

So I said, “Let me get this straight. We’re being forced to live by your schedule, even though we have not violated the barking dog ordinance. You are the ones who have been hostile to us. You have harassed us and our dogs, which really is a violation of the law. But we have made all the concessions. Now we have this hammer hanging over our heads so that if we screw up. Bang!” I slammed my hand down on the table. “And you want us to be nice to you? I don’t think so.”

As we wrapped up the session, Chief told us, “From now on when you’re going to be out of town you will need to kennel your dogs instead of leaving them in your daughter’s care. She clearly can’t handle them.”

“You mean we aren’t allowed to have our dogs protecting our property while we’re gone? Like any other citizen?” Tod asked.

“If you contact the police department before you leave town, we’ll make sure your house is on the patrol roster.” Chief looked at Mr. B. “We do that for all citizens.”

We should have pressed charges.

Afterward, the Mediator told us, “In my opinion this is not about the dog. Those people absolutely hate you. My wife and I had neighbors like them once upon a time. We eventually had to move. I don’t see how you can ever resolve this. And I’m the professional. You’re right about having made all the concessions. They will hold this over your heads. There’s no doubt about that. This whole matter has not been handled properly by law enforcement from the beginning. If there’s no evidence that your dog’s barking has violated the law, then how did it ever come to this? That should have been established a year ago. You have been and are being held to a much higher standard and clearly that has to do with your position on the Board, Tod. And probably the whole recall matter. We all have to hope, as I’m sure you do, now that the recall is over with, this will all just fade away.”

Friedrich Nietzsche said, “Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of man.” To which I would add “and dog”.

The harassing emails did not stop. I was told we are being watched. I even got a nasty email from Mr. Bully.  In May the other Board Members and Town Attorney made a big stink about my blog. They said my opinions were interpreted as Tod’s opinions and affected his ability to make objective decisions about issues before the Board and showed he had a vendetta against the Mayor. We hired an attorney who wrote a letter to the Board Members and Town Attorney on our behalf. The matter died at the July 14 Board Meeting.

Throughout April and May we kept up the same routine with the dogs, abiding by Venus’s curfew. Ski season had ended so we only left them on Sunday mornings for 4 or 5 hours. Venus wore the bark collar sans battery. We left them indoors when we were gone in the evening. We took them camping in Moab. On weekdays the Bullys were gone to work and school, so the dogs were outside all day.

We hadn’t heard a thing from the police department so we believed there had been no complaints. It was our understanding that the Chief would call us if there were.

We talked about putting our house up for sale and moving.

But that posed too much financial risk for us.

One Saturday afternoon in early June, in the midst of our legal battle with the Town, we went for a bike ride. We had left the dogs outside. We never made Venus wear the bark collar when we left to go biking since we knew it was only for a short time. Tod took a longer route, so I headed home first. I had only been gone an hour.

When I was two blocks from our house I saw a man walk out from the back side of our fence along the irrigation ditch. He walked along the end of the fence toward the front of the fence on the street side. At first I thought Tod was home. I quickly realized it wasn’t Tod. It was Mr. Bully.

I peddled madly like the wicked witch of the West. He turned and saw me. As our bad luck would have it, our neighborhood mailboxes are at the end of our property, about 50 feet from the end of our fence. Immediately Bully trotted toward the mailboxes and crossed the street. He wasn’t holding any mail in his hands.

Venus wasn’t barking. I knew if I confronted him he would say he was checking his mail. When Tod got home we talked about calling the police and filing a complaint. But we knew Bully would just claim he was checking his mail. It would be my word against his. With the mailboxes situated at the end of our property, even if it went to court the Judge would give Bully the benefit of the doubt.

Tod did talk to 2 attorneys about the ongoing harassment. They both said we would have to sue the Bullys and/or the Town. Lawyers have a way of cutting to the chase. They said suing for harassment would an expensive uphill battle that probably wouldn’t resolve anything. We kind of thought so.

Besides, we were already up to our eyeballs in alligators with the whole legal hassle about my blog, we had to let it go. We believed what mattered most was that Venus wasn’t barking and we had proved she wasn’t barking.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Stay tuned for Part 13

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

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