…and it happens to live across the hall from us. When we arrived back at home this afternoon he was snarling and barking at us from his window above the sidewalk.

My first reaction was “Ah….#%$* – this is going to be great!” Then I realized that there really isn’t a lot of complaining we can do since our two girls are louder than any puppy, any day.

Then I met the “dog” and his owner. And now I am so very unhappy about this dog and his proximity to my family. The owner proceeded to tell me that although the dog looks like the “Target” dog (you know the white one with the little black eye), he is very powerful and an “aggressive” dog! He told me their (English Bulldogs?) mouths are more powerful than a pitbull’s and sometimes he can’t even get his dog’s mouth open.

Um…ok.

And he asked me, “Do you know how to get a dog’s mouth open if it is clamped down?”

(At this point the hysteria is rising and my chest feels awfully tight…)

Apparently you STEP on the dog’s throat so that he will gasp for air and let go of whatever it might be taking a bite out of. Yeah, great. Helpful to know, I’m sure, if you aren’t so hysterical that you can actually remember that.

So, it gets better….

We exchanged some small talk and he asked how old the girls are and he brought Spot* out for us to “meet” it. I told Emma she was under no circumstances to touch the dog without me and it’s owner around. I did not like the looks of him. He is SOLID dog. And I mentioned something about not letting the cats out (we were in the hallway) and he said, “Oh, yeah. Don’t let them come over here. Spot killed two cats. Two cats that he had lived with for five years.”

At that point I hurried Emma back inside and felt like I was going to throw up. Spot’s owner assured me that he had never even tried to hurt a person and he is “great” with his son. And he will always be on a leash. So there is nothing to worry about.

BUT HE KILLED TWO KITTIES!!!

I mean come on…it is only a matter of time until something else may happen. If you know your dog is powerful enough that you need to warn anybody that comes in contact with it, then why bother having it?

I feel just sick about this. The more I think about it and complain about it (to our landlord and the downstairs neighbor who has outside cats!), the more angry I get. He essentially told me that I should be afraid of living next to this thing. And I am! I’m afraid to share the same hallway and the same stairs with it. I’m afraid to let the girls walk outside if I know they are around. Everyone keeps saying that he has been living next to kids and is just fine, but who is to say that my girls, or the kitties downstairs or some random stroke of bad luck is not enough to set him off?

You haven’t heard the last of this one, I’m sure.

*Name was changed to protect the, uh, innocent?