Man and Dog

It seems that every neighborhood has its peculiarities, but why does it seem that ours has more than others?

One of the most interesting, and annoying, peculiar people in our neighborhood is a man that lives a few houses down. I hadn't noticed him before my mother told me about him, and how his behavior tended to make her a bit upset.

This particular man was tall and thin and had a very little dog, equally thin in dog terms, that he tended to walk past our house quite often. Now that in itself is not something to complain about, if the man is dedicated to walking his little dog, that normally would be considered a good thing. But this man seemed to lack a good sense of propriety that my mother knew of and that she has taught us well in.

On his daily walks this man would walk very slowly through everyone's yard and he would let his dog explore every bush, tree and sidewalk to its own hearts' content. It would not be a problem at all if he were to stay on the public walkway; but no, it was much more to his liking to let his dog explore every inch of the fronts of each house on the block. I wasn't really annoyed too much myself, but it did feel a bit intrusive. For not only did his dog walk through the yards, but since he had quite a short leash the man himself walked up close to all our homes.

Well my mother decided that was enough for her, she didn't want a creepy man walking that close to her house, having his dog poop on her lawn (oh yeah I forgot that part.) So one day she had a chat with him and after that he did not let his dog roam free on our property. Oh how I respect my mother. I hope I can be as bold to speak up about things I do not like.

This has been happening for a long time, but I was just reminded of it yesterday when Carrie and I came home and saw that he was coming down the block with his dog. Exploring the neighbors bushes of course. Carrie exclaimed that we should go slow so we wouldn't meet the "creepy man" who she said walked his dog at 5am when she would go to work. I told her that there was nothing wrong with walking a dog that early, but she exclaimed that that fact must increase his creepiness factor. I wonder if she would think the same thing about a young nice looking man. Hmmmm...