You know the ones. They have a constant ax to grind, they collect and nurture grievances like gold bullion, they enjoy bullying others and will grab on to any excuse to do so.
Used to be they were just a nuisance. Now they’re dangerous. You never know which of them is going to be the one that goes off on the world, beats up somebody, hurts their pets, mows people down with their vehicle, or does a mass shooting.
For those of you who don’t know, I live in a trailer court. My sister and my father also live in the same court, Dad just moved in. The court has always been a no-dogs court, since the former owners, who established the court in the 1960s, were pretty rabid animal haters. Andy (NOT to be confused with our beloved Andy the Cat), the former owner, only grudgingly allowed other pets like cats there, they were not allowed outside. Dogs, he said in response to a bunch of people who requested it, would be allowed in the court “over my dead body”.
Enter the Americans with Disabilities Act, which decrees that you must allow people to own support dogs. This includes “emotional support dogs”. I realize people have issues with this concept, and I am not here to argue the merits of that law. I do absolutely have sympathy for folks that do not want to sit next to the person who takes their “emotional support boa constrictor” on an airplane, for instance.
Andy took it to court when a couple of people in the court got support dogs. He lost. It was part of the reason he sold the place. Last I heard of Andy he was running for office in Forest Lake as a Republican (of course). The current owners are a corporation based in Florida and could care less if people have dogs here, or let their cats out. If you get a note from your doctor, you can have a dog.
Andy may be gone, but the people that moved in here specifically because dogs were not allowed, are still here and they are bitter. They sit on their porches and mutter like so many “get off my lawn” geezers do.
Some of them are kinda psycho. One of them lives right behind me in the court. I let Marvin and Teddums, my cats, out a couple of times and this guy stalked me right to my front porch and screamed at me about it. They were bothering nobody, just hanging in my yard, but he can’t stand to see anybody’s pets outside anywhere. I quit letting Marvin and Teddums go out after that for their own safety. None of my other neighbors objects to them, but I fear this guy. I believe he is quite capable of trying to do them harm just for spite.
So. My Dad moved into this court with the understanding that he could keep his dog Herbie. He has the proper permit and all. I take Herbie for a walk every morning, because Dad can’t walk very far at a time, and can’t do it himself. I am very conscientious about not letting Herbie into peoples’ yards and picking up his poop.
Enter the psycho. He’s driving his truck around, sees me walking Herbie, stops his truck right in the middle of the street and approaches me menacingly. I don’t know if the guy is a Trump supporter or not, but I’m guessing he is, he talks just like him.
He unloads this whole Gish Gallop on me “hey, there’s no dogs allowed in the court, I have a lease that says so”. I say “this is not my dog, this is my Dad’s dog, and he has a permit for him”. He says “a permit? A PERMIT? I call BULLSHIT on your permit. You hear me? BULLSHIT”. Then he starts mocking me “Do you have ISSUES? Do you need EMOTIONAL SUPPORT?”.
At this point, having listened to all this, I decided to sling a little bullshit of my own “This is not my dog. This is my Dad’s dog. He’s an 89 year old disabled veteran”. (This is true. Sort of. He’s 89, he’s disabled enough that he can’t walk his own dog, and he’s a veteran. A 20-year man, even). I said “do you want to go over to his place and tell my Dad that he can’t have his dog here?”
This shut him up for a second. Then he takes another tack. “You’re not allowed to walk dogs in the court”. I said “that’s not what the office told me”. He then says “where do YOU live? What’s YOUR address?”. I almost laughed in his face. Who does the dude think he is, ICE? I said “You know what? I don’t have to talk to you. If you have issues, take them up with office”. And I started to walk away.
He muttered something about my cats that I didn’t catch, and then yelled after me “hey, FUCK YOU and FUCK YOUR DOG too”.
I reported him to the office, where he is well known also. The office manager told me “I really wish he would move.” Seems the guy threatened him (the office manager) during the winter because the maintenance crew plowed a little snow up on the sidewalk in front of his trailer. This guy has a “No Trespassing” sign in his front window. In a trailer court. He has called the cops numerous times on the office guys and all his neighbors for various petty infractions. I am sure they love him at the local PD as much as we do.
It’s not really a burden to walk Herbie outside the court. There’s a park right across the street and plenty of places to walk. So I take him outside the court for his walks now. As much as I would dearly love to rumble with this asshole, discretion must be the better part of valor, I guess. You never know who will turn out to be dangerously unstable these days.
Thanks for listening to this little rant. I try to focus on all the good kind people I know and ignore these types, but it’s disturbing how many of them there are around. I guess they’ve always been there, but they feel a lot more bold these days.