Welcome to Hot Mama Sauce

Hot Mama Sauce ... A blog site for smart mamas, their mates, partners and anyone else interested in real mothers and their original stories.

I am your host, Morgy, but I've invited some other wickedly smart women to share their mothering triumphs, tips and, tribulations here.

I'd like this to be a place for moms ... real moms who've been through it all or are on the road to being through it all to share their stories, funny, sad, triumphant, aggravating, loving stories and everything in between, tips that worked or what not to do, successes, failures, hard times and easy times.

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Shock Collar

Well ... My neighbor was just out on his newly refurbished deck (two planks of ply wood to patch up the gaping hole from where he tore his dilapitated stairway down.) My dog was out barking ... as usual ... because for some reason, he just doesn't like that neighbor. Hmmmm. I doubt it has anything to do with the fact that my husband has caught the neighbor spraying our dog with water a couple of times, not to mention cursing at him under his breath while he pretends to do yardwork.

We have some other neighbors who were setting up some sort of tent for an out-of-doors party and so I was out there trying to wrangle Edgar into the house. I had succumbed to luring him in to the house with treats because he just wouldn't come this time. He's a slippery bugger. Anyway, I hear this, broadcasting from the 5 X 5' deck next door, "I can get you a shock collar. You can borrow it. You can zap 'im every time he barks ... just nail 'im."

Uhhh.

Uhhh.

"No. That's okay. I have a student whose stepdad tried a shock collar on one time, to see how it felt and he said it hurt like hell."

"Well, does your student's stepfather have a bunch of fur around his neck? I'm mean .. it'll git 'im, it'll shock 'im, but it won't damage 'im or nothin'. It's not abuse. It's made for dogs not people. It's like a cattle prod."

AAAH. A cattle prod ... Is that all?

He continued, "All I know is that if you keep givin' 'im treats when he barks, he's just thinkin' 'Ah! I'm a good boy!' I do have dog-handling experience, you know."

Here's is what I said: "Oh, yeah. That's makes sense. This is just sort of a one-time thing for immediate action. Thanks man ... I hope your arm feels better." (It's broken.)

Here is what I WANTED to say, but allowed this tirade to remain tucked neatly inside my head, probably where it belongs ... I don't know: "Really. Thank you for the advice. Since you feel entitled to bark dog-rearing advice from atop your grand palace's ... deck, then I feel entitled to give you some parenting and lifestyle advice from down here on Earth. Let's start with giving your 12-year-old and 7-year-old daughters a reasonable curfew ... midnight's a bit late for them to be roaming unsupervised, especially since they like to shreik and carry-on while outside. Also, I try to not judge those adults who choose to relax in ways that may or may not be legal from time to time, but when clouds of ditchweed smoke float from your window to my front yard, on a daily basis, my judgement hackles do tend to rise, particularly when I know your children are in the house with you. My second peice of advice is to cut down on the greens, at least while your children are in your care. And finally, your little daughter was over here the other day and she was complaining that her daddy doesn't have any food in the house. I offered to make her a sandwich but she said she was going to her mom's house in a few minutes and would be able to eat there. I noticed that you always have a trash can (not recycling bin, I also noticed) full of beer cans. My third peice of advice is to regularly invest in nutritious food for your children in place of the case of beer that apparently currently takes precedence. Oh, and by the way ... What is it that you do for a living?"

In the words of Atticus Finch, I'm pretty sure he "buys cotton."

Don't judge, lest ye be judged.

I honestly try not to judge anyone, but when you live next to someone who lives the way this man lives, it's hard to bite one's tongue. But I do.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel your frustration. I had neighbors buy the house next to me. An unmarried couple. It was all well and good until her rebellious son from Jersey moved in and carted all his cronies with him. Those were days of pure hell.

They sold the house since then and I have the most wonderful couple living next store to me. I just love them! He is an archaeologist and she is a massage therapists.

He brings home the bones, she rubs them down!

~giggles~

Head Cookie said...

Better you than me Morg cause I have a hard time biting my tongue but you handled it superbly.