A little over a week ago, Morgan attacked a smaller dog that surprised her (and me)in our driveway. Morgan was on a retractible lead, so was the chihuahua she jumped at. It was pretty scary, and the little dog escaped with the toothmark in the chest and a scraped belly. I gave the woman my card and let her know we would gladly pay for the vet bills. I was profusely apologetic. And felt sick that night trying to figure out what to do.
The apartment complex calls the next day (we are temporarily in an apartment until the end of the school year) and tells us we need to get rid of the vicious German Sheppard and that we are in violation of the lease. For those of you who do not know Morgan:
Come on. A German Sheppard? And I received a tight little email from her with the doctor bill. She is being nasty.
I am having a hard time with this. I was not the least bit resistant to giving her all the information she needed to get in touch with me. I immediately offered to pay the medical expenses. I genuinely had great concern for this dog and had already put things in motion to get Morgan into some kind of training program (this is the first time she has done anything like this). And Morgan mostly scared the dog. There was not even any blood. But now I am thinking I need to get a lawyer or something to make sure I am not signing on for a lifetime of this stuff with this woman. If I send a check, is that me accepting full accountability, even though her dog was relatively loose on a retractible lead right next to my car? If the dog develops some kind of sickness later, is this license to come back to me and blame this incident?
The horrible thing to me is that her actions have made me feel much less concerned about her and her dog and made me defensive about ours. Running to the leasing office to tell them we had a vicious sheppard living with us (her words)? Refusing to accept even the slightest bit of accountability for letting her dog run right up to our car? Sending me an ugly note with the bill? It has suddenly become a matter of trust with me. And I do not trust her.
I want to write her a note to tell her all of this. I want her to know that there are consequences to behaving the way she does and what could have been a very simple transaction is now more complex. I want to let her know that I am struggling to feel any compassion for her, given that she clearly has none for anyone else involved here.
I am still glad the chihuahua is fine. Too bad about her owner.
xo
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3 comments:
Dang, this is a tough one. I don't know about getting a lawyer, but you just don't know about this sort of thing. Silas got into a tussle once with another dog, but the other dog was off-leash and Silas was on-leash, so it was pretty cut and dried. I think you did the right thing by offering to pay the bills, but the chihuahua's owner seems to be all about the taking and not the giving.
I say pay the bill and let it go. Life's too short and you won't be this person's neighbor forever. If she ramps it up, then you call a lawyer -- or Judge Judy. She'd put in an end to this nonsense in a heartbeat.
I'm not sure how to handle the apartment management. Surely they knew you had Morgan before you moved in. In my opinion, you can ignore the request to get rid of the German Shepard, since you clearly don't own one.
Sorry you're having to go through all this. Morgan sure is a cutie!
I agree with Steven. While on the one hand, you are concerned about protecting yourself and your dog, once you bring in a lawyer it will get uglier no matter what.
Paying the bill, responding only with kindness (although make no specific reference to fault or blame just in case it gets wrose later), you can hope that she gets past her tizzy rather than giving her an excuse to ramp it up. She sounds like the kind of person who would not take your comments well.
I agree with both Steven and Sharon. We can only be accountable for our own actions. Being kind to another even if they're not kind in return is what will help you sleep at night, and you have no idea what other issues she may be dealing with. Sorry about the troubles, but you'll be outa there pretty soon, right?
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