WhiteMountainsRanch
Loving the herd life
This is a convoluted story so I will keep it as brief as possible while still getting across the main points.
I have a feeling my feelings are getting in the way of finding an answer so I need outside opinions on how to handle the situation.
We have been having dog problems with our closest neighbor since Feb of 2014 (this year). At that time our two LGD's, Diego and Toli, were 13 months and 11 months old. They emailed my landlord a huge nasty personally slandering email (even though I've only met the lady once) saying that our dogs killed one of her Cock-a-poos (cocker spaniel/ poodle). Now, I am one of those people that have seen what dogs can do when they get into pack mode and can understand, HOWEVER myself, my boyfriend, my landlord, three children I was baby sitting, AND a family of three were here AT THE FARM physically up there WITH the dogs when the "attack" happened and I know it wasn't our dogs. The lady is hell bent that it was our dogs, even though no one saw the attack, and there was absolutely no proof.
March of 2014 Toli has a litter of 9 puppies.
May of 2014 at 8 weeks old, two of Toli's puppies go missing. I have a gut feeling they were stolen as they were in the middle of our farm, but my boyfriend thinks coyotes got them. They were there at night when we tucked everyone in bed at 10 pm and by 6:30 am the next morning, they are missing. We searched for hours and days, searched all the neighboring fields and neighbors yards, put up fliers and asked neighbors, all to no avail. We knew they couldn't have gotten far since they were so young, we walked around to some of the neighbors houses looking in yards for them in case someone thought they were strays. We did NOT look or knock at these particular neighbors house since the woman had been so venomous to me and since we KNOW that they have seen and knew both of the parent dogs (of which the puppies are carbon copies). These pups had already been sold and we had deposits on them which we had to refund.
2 months later they again email our landlord slandering the heck out of me personally (I've still only ever met or spoke with her one time) saying that our dogs "tore up" her cocker-poodles. However, our dogs were tethered on steel cables locked inside the goat pasture, so there is NO possible way it was our dogs. She has about 4-5 of these miniature cocker- poodles, that weigh no more than 15 pounds, and that they let run all over country, into other people yards etc, they come down to our place and harass our livestock all the time. They refuse to keep them contained.
Today on August 31st while up at the farm feeding the animals, in the evening at approx 6:30 pm I look up and see our two "missing" puppies come running back down into our yard, granted now they are 5 months old, but of course I recognized them instantly. The pups come running over to me as soon as I call them, happy as can be. They both look to be in good condition and have collars and tags. I lock them in the barn and remove one of the tags to bring down with me to the house to google the phone number and address, thinking if it was one of our further away neighbors it would be totally understandable. Well turns out to be an exact match to these immediate next door neighbors, the ones we have been having such a problem with. So they had our puppies the entire time while they were starting all this unfounded crap with us!
So now they have called our landlord, and aren't denying that they are our dogs, but at first they said they thought they were strays and then changed their story to saying they thought we had left them at their doorstep for them as a peace offering, *cough BS*. Now they want them back. I created a chronological list of all the events that happened, as well as attached the missing flyer and sent it all to my landlord (as she is the intermediary between us as the lady won't even speak to us). I don't know if they expect us to give them back for free, or if they thinks its reasonable to buy them from us, but at this point I am convinced they knowingly stole them from us and that the lady is utterly cuckoo. My thoughts are to sell them back to them, but my boyfriend thinks that if we ask for "too much" that the lady will retaliate and try to steal our puppies, let goats out, poison our animals etc. I say she could still do all that even if we gave them back for free.
PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR THOUGHTS...
I have a feeling my feelings are getting in the way of finding an answer so I need outside opinions on how to handle the situation.
We have been having dog problems with our closest neighbor since Feb of 2014 (this year). At that time our two LGD's, Diego and Toli, were 13 months and 11 months old. They emailed my landlord a huge nasty personally slandering email (even though I've only met the lady once) saying that our dogs killed one of her Cock-a-poos (cocker spaniel/ poodle). Now, I am one of those people that have seen what dogs can do when they get into pack mode and can understand, HOWEVER myself, my boyfriend, my landlord, three children I was baby sitting, AND a family of three were here AT THE FARM physically up there WITH the dogs when the "attack" happened and I know it wasn't our dogs. The lady is hell bent that it was our dogs, even though no one saw the attack, and there was absolutely no proof.
March of 2014 Toli has a litter of 9 puppies.
May of 2014 at 8 weeks old, two of Toli's puppies go missing. I have a gut feeling they were stolen as they were in the middle of our farm, but my boyfriend thinks coyotes got them. They were there at night when we tucked everyone in bed at 10 pm and by 6:30 am the next morning, they are missing. We searched for hours and days, searched all the neighboring fields and neighbors yards, put up fliers and asked neighbors, all to no avail. We knew they couldn't have gotten far since they were so young, we walked around to some of the neighbors houses looking in yards for them in case someone thought they were strays. We did NOT look or knock at these particular neighbors house since the woman had been so venomous to me and since we KNOW that they have seen and knew both of the parent dogs (of which the puppies are carbon copies). These pups had already been sold and we had deposits on them which we had to refund.
2 months later they again email our landlord slandering the heck out of me personally (I've still only ever met or spoke with her one time) saying that our dogs "tore up" her cocker-poodles. However, our dogs were tethered on steel cables locked inside the goat pasture, so there is NO possible way it was our dogs. She has about 4-5 of these miniature cocker- poodles, that weigh no more than 15 pounds, and that they let run all over country, into other people yards etc, they come down to our place and harass our livestock all the time. They refuse to keep them contained.
Today on August 31st while up at the farm feeding the animals, in the evening at approx 6:30 pm I look up and see our two "missing" puppies come running back down into our yard, granted now they are 5 months old, but of course I recognized them instantly. The pups come running over to me as soon as I call them, happy as can be. They both look to be in good condition and have collars and tags. I lock them in the barn and remove one of the tags to bring down with me to the house to google the phone number and address, thinking if it was one of our further away neighbors it would be totally understandable. Well turns out to be an exact match to these immediate next door neighbors, the ones we have been having such a problem with. So they had our puppies the entire time while they were starting all this unfounded crap with us!
So now they have called our landlord, and aren't denying that they are our dogs, but at first they said they thought they were strays and then changed their story to saying they thought we had left them at their doorstep for them as a peace offering, *cough BS*. Now they want them back. I created a chronological list of all the events that happened, as well as attached the missing flyer and sent it all to my landlord (as she is the intermediary between us as the lady won't even speak to us). I don't know if they expect us to give them back for free, or if they thinks its reasonable to buy them from us, but at this point I am convinced they knowingly stole them from us and that the lady is utterly cuckoo. My thoughts are to sell them back to them, but my boyfriend thinks that if we ask for "too much" that the lady will retaliate and try to steal our puppies, let goats out, poison our animals etc. I say she could still do all that even if we gave them back for free.
PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR THOUGHTS...
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