[Jeff Higgins]

You make a lot of assumptions, Seric. And an implication... No, I did not go off "half-cocked". Yes, I did think this through.

In my couple of conversations with these people, I arrived upon the same conclusion you did in your case - it was clear that speaking with them was not going to solve anything. They were the kind that just didn't give a rat's ass, and had the attitude that there was nothing I could do, so "STFU and go away..."

Like I said, their dog ran loose all the time. When they did chain him up to the house, at night, all he did was bark. That was far from the worst of the problem; the "general nuisance" part of running loose all day included property damage in addition to crapping in everyone else's yards. We had all had enough, and many of us had spoken with this neighbor. He was a blight on the neighborhood in many other ways, but that is a different story.

The cops (county cops) did come. A nice young deputy walked right up my driveway, where I was putting a new motor in my old FJ40 Landcruiser, and asked me If I had shot the dog. My answer was "absolutely. Is there some kind of problem with that?" His answer was that, well, no there wasn't. Because I was outside the city limits. Had I been inside the city limits, there would be a problem with discharging a firearm...

I protested that it wasn't a "firearm". He told me that, inside the city, even the BB gun I used would be considered a "firearm". "Oh goody, then - next time I can use my '06 and it wouldn't make any difference to you guys..." "Well, uh, no sir, then we might really have a problem. You can't just kill your neighbor's dog, no matter how much he needs it."