Bad Dog

I know that my neighbors are most probably right (at least, in a Millian sense), but I still insist that they're overreacting.

They say that the Dragon Baby barks too much when she's outside in our building's backyard, but I know that she usually stops after about a minute (real time) and that if she doesn't, I call her in.

They say that she has pulled branches off of the bushes, but I know that she doesn't usually tug on live plants and I suspect that what has happened is that the branches broke off when the bushes were buried in snow and that she simply pulled them out of the drifts.

They say that she gets too excited when our janitor is out collecting the trash from our porches, but I know that he doesn't mind her barking because I have asked him over and over whether I should bring her in and he says, "No, she's fine.  I like dogs."

They say that she shouldn't be left out alone, but I know that I never let her out unless I am able to listen to what she's doing and make sure that she doesn't start barking too much.

I appreciate that nobody likes a dog barking its head off incessantly, but not one of them acknowledged that maybe they were particularly sensitive, so that when they say, "Too much," what they really mean is "at all."

To be fair, none of them seemed particularly angry or upset at our association meeting this week, but they were firm: the Dragon Baby cannot be outside on her own.  Period.

I'm going to miss the little woof that she always made, ever so politely, whenever she wanted to come back in.  But how am I going to explain to her that she is not allowed to chase any more squirrels?

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