Fall Creek Neighborhood Association

I subscribe to the Fall Creek Neighborhood Association Listserv. I am about to stop. It is not good for my blood pressure.

I call it the "Pearl Clutchers Listserve" because a lot of the emails on the listserv are very much in the
"Won't someone please think of the children?!" vein of absurdity. Ryan and I started subscribing after we rescued a loose dog, took it to the SPCA and then discovered the listserv and used it to communicate with the owner of the dog, who was very grateful that we'd found her little dog.

Yesterday, I posted about a dog that had been whining and crying on and off for HOURS. I have heard the dog before, but never for hours. I thought that perhaps - because this happened to me when I first had Jeeves - that the owners were unaware that the dog was upset. It was Memorial Day, perhaps they'd all gone out and left the dog and she was sad.

I would want to know if my dogs were crying while I was out. This is the email that I sent:

Hi all,

There is a very sad dog that has been crying on and off for most of
today, somewhere in the vicinity of the corner of Lincoln and N.
Tioga. I've heard it cry before, but never for so long!

Beyond calling the SPCA, I'm not entirely sure what I can do, but it
is a little heartbreaking. Does anyone know if something can be done?
If you are the owners, perhaps you are unaware that your dog is so
miserable sometimes?

I got a lot of responses, most people said, "call the SPCA!"

I didn't call the SPCA because within minutes of that email being posted, the crying stopped.

Then today, I received this email from an "aztennenbaum":

Maggie is a wonderful dog we've had for nine years. If you knew her,
you would understand that the howling is just something she does, and
has done since she was a puppy because it gets such a prompt response
from the humans.  The howling crying tortured sounds start when she
wants to come back inside and stop the instant we let her back inside.
There is no ramp up. Usually she gets bored after about 5 minutes of
in the backyard and starts howling, so we let her back in.

Yesterday we were doing some gardening so we let her come out back
with us. The reason it was on and off was because we were continuously
moving stuff from the backyard to the front yard (crying starts) and
back again (crying stops). In spite of this, I think she had a better
time than she would have had we just made her stay inside, which would
have resulted in zero crying. Quite frankly it doesn't matter how
happy our neighbors think she is, only how happy she actually is.

The last paragraph, mainly the last sentence, suggest a certain amount of aggression that I felt was unnecessary, but I just chalked it up to "aztennenbaum" not really thinking about my perspective. Most people don't think about other people's perspectives.

Then, from the same email address, 15 minutes later, I received this:

Hi all,

There is a very sad baby that has been crying on and off for most of

today, somewhere in the vicinity of the corner of Lincoln and N.
Tioga. I've heard it cry before, but never for so long!

Beyond calling DSS, I'm not entirely sure what I can do, but it

is a little heartbreaking. Does anyone know if something can be done?

If you are the parents, perhaps you are unaware that your baby is so
miserable sometimes?

Isn't that weird? It's like they think I made a mistake not calling the SPCA on them. Or something. I don't know. I wrote back telling them I wasn't sure what they were trying to accomplish with that email besides being rude. I'm about done with the Pearl Clutchers. It used to provide me with some amusement but frankly, it's making me hate my neighbourhood and I didn't before.