The Mutt Problem- Some Advice Would be Nice

I live across the street from a passive-aggressive jackass. No one gets along with the man. He's the half-brother of my landlord and they don't speak to each other. There's some power lines cutting across the jackass' property. Just below the power lines is another neighbor. Several years ago, the two had some sort of argument so the jackass built an eight foot wooden privacy fence- in the middle of his pasture, roughly half a mile between either house. This is what is called a 'spite fence' and if we were in the city limits, the neighbor could probably take action to have the fence removed. But as the fence is out in the middle of nowhere, and he can't see it from his house, the neighbor just goes on about his business.

But Alabama Power objects to the fence because it is blocking access to their power lines. Alabama Power does not always politely inquire. Sometimes they just rip things up and that's what they did with the fence. Jackass assumed the neighbor did it, and he promptly rebuilt his useless fence. Alabama Power knocked it down again. He rebuilt. Knocked down. Rebuilt. The neighbor is watching all this with great amusement. Every time jackass accuses him of messing with the fence, he laughs like hell.

My landlord's uncle was shot and killed because of the jackass. He got into it with some rednecks, they were in the woods shooting at the house (just messing with him them said!), and a stray bullet hit the uncle who was standing on his porch. The uncle's house was some 200 yards away from the jackass. I think that really was an accident, but what kind of person annoys rednecks enough that they break out the guns? Most rednecks I know would rather fight with their fists.

Every time I tell one of the locals where I live, they say, 'oh. Sorry.' People who break down come to my house saying, 'I just didn't feel right going over there.' The jackass has signs everywhere stating 'Smile. Your on video' I object the the signs just because of the grammar. It's YOU'RE. Idiot.

The jackass lives in a really old single-wide trailer because his wife burned down the house. He built a big, fancy house that had outside heat. The wife got up in the middle of the night to add wood to the fire, left the door open, a draft blew in, fanned the flames, and the whole house went up in smoke. They had no insurance on the house, and had sunk all their money into building it, so they couldn't rebuild. Now I live in a friendly town, and when anything happens, everybody pitches in to help. I think if my house burned, I'd get three or four offers of free lodging, clothes, food, and money. Nobody offered to help the jackass. All of this happened years ago and part of the burned house is still standing. The jackass left it has a reminder to his wife- it's your fault we live in a cheap trailer. I think by now he should have gotten enough money to rebuild, but he doesn't because he doesn't want his wife to have anything nice.

When I first moved in, I let my dogs run outside a good bit. Sophie and Halona would happily stay in the yard all day- until the jackass let his dogs out. I don't know how many he has. At least five, maybe six. One of his would come over and my dogs would have a fit and they would chase the dog off. I didn't want to be a bad neighbor, so I would promptly try to catch my dogs. Mine don't really listen when they are defending their territory. Catching two dogs is hard. Just when I grab one, the other runs farther away. Or one of the jackass' mutts will nip the dog I've caught and then I can't hold her.

I decided the problem was we both got home at the same time, thus we both let our dogs out at the same time. I thought the solution would be to vary the time I opened the dog pen gate. So I started waiting an hour or so. This worked for a few days. Enough that I stopped looking out the window before going out. That's when he started messing with me. The jackass waited until he saw my dogs roaming free, then he'd left his pack out. Chaos would begin. His dogs would come over, mine would chase them away, I couldn't get mine back, and all the while the jackass would be standing near the fence watching. He wouldn't call his and he wouldn't catch mine. He'd tell my dogs, 'You keep coming over here and you'll be shot!' but he never said a word to me.

I changed times again. I tried to be random. When he couldn't figure out my pattern, he started leaving ONE of his dogs loose at all times.

His dogs are working dogs. He has them to herd cows. He is of the mind that working animals are not pets. The dogs are not socialized. They do not get petted. If a dog does not obey, he shoots it. Last weekend, I had to go fetch my dogs from across the street. He wasn't home but his wife was. She tried to help, but she was afraid to grab their dog because it bites. It took nearly 45 minutes to separate dogs and drag mine back home.

I have tried walking mine on a leash. But I can't hold two full grown labs. I've tried walking one at a time, but sometimes I still can't hold the dog. I've been dragged across pavement more than once. I have a shock collar, but I only have one collar and two dogs. My dogs hate the collar and whenever one is wearing it she is almost afraid to pee. I'll have to coax her off the porch. I don't like shock collars, but I'm afraid if my dogs start chasing cows he'll shoot them and he would be perfectly within his rights to defend his livestock. The battery goes dead in the collar frequently and because it is an expensive lithium battery, I hate buying replacements. And this still doesn't solve the problem of his dogs coming into my yard.

Today I didn't think. I opened the door, let the dogs out, turned on the stove to make coffee, then headed outside to keep an eye on the dogs. I noticed Sophie staring across the yard intently. Uh-oh. I started calling the dogs to come in, but too late, they were running across the road. Immediately, I went after them, just praying I could get the dogs back before the coffee pot burned up. I actually managed to catch them both in ten minutes, but several of my neighbors saw me in my pajamas- flannel pants, white tank-top, slippers, unbrushed hair, and eyes still screwed up with sleep. And at 12 noon, so they probably think I'm lazy as hell. I think three cars went by and I doubt any of them said, hmm, she must work second shift. I bet they were all thinking, Geez, put some clothes on, lady.

I'm not sure how to fix this. If he wasn't such an asshole, I'd talk to him, work out some times when our dogs could be free. If the wife wasn't scared of the dogs, I'd talk to her, but I really think she doesn't want to go out to the pen unless she absolutely has to. If the dogs were more sociable, I'd let them interact with mine. I thought about calling Animal Control, but while he's mean, he's not being negligent- his animals are fed and sheltered. And he could just as easily turn the tables by calling Animal Control on me. Since I live on the county line, I'd have to call Lee County on him and he'd call Tallapoosa County on me, and I doubt either agency would talk to the other before heading out. I'm not doing anything wrong, but I'd rather not have my name in an Animal Control inquiry. My landlord said the next time one of his dogs came in my yard, I should shoot it. I'm afraid if I did, I'd come home from work and find my dogs dead. I don't want to shoot a dog anyway. 

So Readers, what would you do?