Happy New Years' Eve!

My resolutions for 2004: Run a 10K. Try to cut back on my sarcasm. Read more. Go to one new continent (South America!). Ski a scary slope without freaking out at the top of it. Not let my brother's nice new car he got for Christmas get under my skin (it might be too late for that). Come to work earlier in the morning.

Ok, we'll see which ones of those I keep.

Now, a rant. Good fences do NOT equal good neighbors. Last night I was out in the drainage/industrial area behind our neighborhood. Lot's of people take their dogs there to let them off their leashes and play. There are no dog parks in Houston, no public property where you can let your dogs have some room to run, so this is the best a lot of us can do. I wanted to test out the new tennis-ball thrower that Sarah got me, which can fling a ball much farther than I can throw it.

Anyway, while I am happily playing fetch, a dog in one of the yards that backs up to the drainage area is going nuts. He's barking away. I hear his owner come out a couple of times and scold him. Finally the owner climbed up a ladder and peaked out over her 6 foot privacy fence and yells "LADY! LADY!" I responded (a little confused) "Yes?"

And she yelled, quite annoyed, "Put your dogs on the leash or I'm calling the cops! They'll come and take your dog away! I'm calling the cops! Its against the law to have them off the leash! Take them to a park or something." (Obviously she's new to this dog ownership thing or just doesn't care enough about her dog to take him to a park, because there are no parks that allow dogs of their leashe in the greater Houston area!)

Anyway, I was baffled and annoyed. Yes, in theory its against the law. In practice, this is a perfect place to have dogs off the leash. Its isolated, there's no road access for the dogs to escape to, and no one goes back there except for other people with dogs. I hadn't been back there in a couple of months, but I know people who take their dogs their regularly.

By this point I was fuming. I went over several possible responses in my head, such as "Go to hell!" or "Well, there are barking nuisance laws too, maybe I should call the police about your dog." I contemplated walking the two dogs over (on their leashes) to the public grassy area right by her fence and just sitting down and hanging out and letting her dog bark its brains out. That would prove having my dogs off their leashes doesn't hurt her any more than following the law with my dogs on the leashes.

Instead I put my dogs on their leashes and went home. Why start an argument? I'll go back another time when she's not around. Or maybe when she is around and I feel more argumentative. Oh well.