I live on one of those old fashioned streets where everybody has porches and spends a lot of time outside in nice weather.
This neighbor is what is best describe as an angry chainsmoker. When we first moved in we were on okay terms, but she’d always rail about how everybody on the street hates her and sometimes yell at them passive aggressively for various things. Anyway, our relationship soured, mainly related to her dog and how I won’t allow it around my kids and ask her to keep it on leash.
It’s a service dog but from her many stories, she complained it was poorly trained and has snapped at her family members, and on top of that it’s huge, and barks at people a lot, so I didn’t want it around the kids. Once it lunged at my oldest (who wasn’t doing anything to provoke it), but it was held back by the leash. Another time we were on the porch with our baby in a bouncer, and we were talking with her as she walked by, and she let the large dog walk right up and stick its face in the bouncer, we shouted no, oh my gosh, no what are you doing, and she ran inside without a word. One day she was walking it offleash and I politely asked her to pick up the leash around the kids, she didn’t, I asked again and reminded her it was the law. She didn’t, so I called the city’s helpline and asked if anything could be done, so they put in a request to have animal control remind her of the rules.
So many things - but basically she is obsessed that I don’t “like” her dog. If she sees me outside, she’ll go back in and get the dog and just stand out front with it, and make a big show of how nice it is when talking to others in earshot, and how “not everybody likes big dogs.” She’ll stand with her dog on the sidewalk forcing it to be near kids playing, almost like she wants to hear me remind my preschooler not to go up to it. She does things for attention, like slamming her front door, setting off her car’s alarm if you walk by it, zooming off down the street, etc. It’s really sad and weird. She was adopted from Eastern Europe, not sure if that affects it, but the few people I know like that all tend to have some demons they struggle with.
I guess I just want to know the best way to try and handle this with humor. It’s kind of dragging me down because inside I’m like Michael Scott and would like everybody to like me and get along. Thanks!
Tl;dr: Neighbor who dislikes me because I don’t like her aggressive dog displays attention seeking behaviors and I want tips on how to best manage frequently seeing this weird neighbor with grace and good humor.
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