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This is our Doberman Bessie. Before Erin was born I used to blog about Bessie all the time. After all, she was our child. We adopted Bessie 4 1/2 years ago at the age of 6 from a doberman rescue shelter – DRU. Now, since our REAL baby has joined us and all of life’s twists and turns and my recent foray into photoblogging has left me very little time to blog about Bessie. Something happened this morning that really threw me for a loop…

I was out on my morning walk with Bessie and decided to do a route that we hadn’t done in a long time. As we were walking down the sidewalk, I noticed a car approaching that I recognized. It was “Julie” (fictional name) – the 30-something daughter of our upstairs neighbor who lives at home. She slowed down and motioned to me to get my attention. She rolled down her window and asked if Kate and I were travelling anywhere this weekend. I said that we would be in and out of the house all weekend but currently no plans to go anywhere overnight. She seemed slightly relieved and then went on to say how she is leaving on Monday for a business trip to Italy and really needs her sleep because last weekend when we went down the shore Bessie cried and barked the whole time – leaving her, Julie, without sleep for 48 hours. And then she said how her mom hears Bessie barking all day long when we leave the house. I apologized for her loss of sleep and assured her that we would be around this weekend. She said, “ok, good” and drove off.

All day long this short conversation has left me with a hollow pit in my stomach. At first I was devastated that we’ve been unknowingly putting our closest neighbors through so much angst. That turned into anger that they waited almost 5 years to say anything, and now into pure confusion about all the facts. Here’s where I am with the whole thing and I would greatly appreciate any/all comments and advice you may have for me…

#1 One of the things we loved about the doberman breed is their quietness. We took this into account before even going to see a single dog. Dobermans are not yap yap dogs that bark and howl all day long (see Beagles). They just aren’t.

#2 As I said, it’s been almost 5 years since we moved in and rescued Bessie. Either the barking really isn’t as bad as Julie claims or they’ve found ways of dealing with it on their own.

#3 Dogs don’t just decide to start barking uncontrollably at the ripe old age of 11.

#4 We always have our Vet Tech, Tracy, who we absolutely love and trust dog-sit for us when we go away and she has never mentioned anything about barking – and she has had conversations with our neighbors when we’ve been away.

#5 We have every right to own and house a dog in our condo unit. Even a dog that barks. There are no condo rules or regulations that state otherwise.

So, the question becomes: What do we do, if anything?

We really do love living here, but we have also been slowly contemplating looking for a bigger house. Do we step-up that process and just move? Do we look into a sleep-away kennel for Bessie when we go away (which the very idea terrifies both Kate and myself)? Do we just ignore the whole thing and go about our lives? Do we drop a card in the mail to them apologizing for our dog – in the name of neighborly peace? And, if I’m being brutally honest, they’re not the quietest neighbors in the world either. We hear them vaccuming their carpets almost constantly, we can hear their TV at night and we hear every step they take when going to the bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, etc. And we certainly would never dream of complaining to them about the noise. WHAT SHOULD WE DO?