Barking Dogs
It seems that every place I've lived in Chico I have had the barking dog curse. They are always next door or right behind me. I'm not talking about dogs that bark every now and then for a few minutes and then shut up, I'm talking about dogs that bark for hours at a time. I've oftened wondered what these dog owners would think, how tolerable would they be, if I went outside and started screaming "hey, hey, hey" as loud as I could? They'd call the cops on me in a heartbeat, and rightfully so. The thing is, even if I did that, I still wouldn't be as loud or wall piercing as their screaming canines. So why is one acceptable and the other is not?
I have complained to neighbors about their barking dogs in the past. Sometimes I have gotten results and often I have been ignored. I have never called animal control because I believe neighbors should be able to work out their differences without getting authorities involved. Maybe it was my own guilt over the noise I put my own neighbors thru back in the seventies when, in the ignorance of my youth, I used to have band practice in my living room, and we were loud. Maybe on some level I have felt it was my karma, later in life, to be on the receiving end of noise pollution. But then again, back in the seventies, we always got the cops called on us.