Since we moved into our new house till now, we have more or less come to know of our neighbour’s crazy antics which have given us a laugh now and then. Mr A, (To be fair, I will not specify names) is a grouchy man in his prime while his wife is a plump lady whose voice can penetrate through thick walls. Their three children, two sons and daughters have grown up and started working already. All of them except for one (their eldest daughter) live in a huge house painted all in white which my brother gives the nickname the “white house”. At first, we didn’t really communicate, as before we moved in to our house, the attic in their house had caught fire and we assumed that they were busy arranging matters. The top part of their house was not badly burnt but you could see the plaster which was burnt black and peeling off the walls. Besides being badly shocked, I don’t think they suffered any damages or casualties.

After a while, we settled down and got used to the one-sided greeting everyday. We just assumed that they weren’t as enthusiastic as getting new neighbours as the rest. Our neighbours had a dog at their house called Lucky. She was a jet-black dog which liked to laze around and do basically nothing. Lucky back then was a harmless old dog, quite harmless until she got pregnant and had a litter of puppies. From then on, she became an over-protective mother and was always barking at us when we peered through the fence to get a glimpse of the puppies. There were I think 6 puppies, one cream, two black, one black with markings and one brown. At first they were cute little things, always scrabbling all over the place especially when Lucky barked at us or other people. We had wanted a dog for a long time, and my mother had politely asked Mr. A if he was giving away the dogs. I mean, of course he had to give them away because you can only keep 3 dogs in your house. When he said maybe, my mother asked of he would spare a dog for us. Mr. A didn’t reply, and he never ended up giving us a puppy. We were quite put off at his behavior but never the less it was his puppies and he could choose what to do with them.

Six puppies is to take care of is not an easy feat- you have to feed them at least every two hours, they have to be taken for vaccination, and of course you have to collect their business which they leave all over the place. From what I heard, I think the maid got fed up quite soon and opted to leave, so they hired a new maid which they thought was more capable of taking care of the dogs. When the puppies were about four months, they finally decided to give away some, and so after a while four dogs including Lucky were left. They didn’t offer to give one of the puppies to us, and we didn’t ask. Sooner or later the puppies were not considered cute any longer. They were in in one word a complete nuisance, to not only us but the whole neighbourhood. They were always barking, whenever they saw anything or heard anything - even a slight cough would start them barking. Day and night when we came back from school, when our tuition teachers came to the house, when the gardener came to cut the plants , they were always there barking at us threateningly. The worst part was that when we walked on the path towards the garden, (which is located next to the neighbour’s fence where the dogs are kept) not only do we have to have to suffer through their non-stop barking, but also the smell of their business which caused us to use the longer way to the garden. We were ever so thankful not to have gotten a puppy from them.

The neighbours dogs sadly bring out the worst side of me and my sister. At about four o’clock in the morning, the time when almost everyone is deep in slumber, the dogs would suddenly wake up and start barking non-stop - for what purpose, we’re not too sure. Probably barking at some poor stray squirrel who’s wishing it stayed in it’s nice, warm, dog-free tree. Once the dogs start, they don’t stop. They continued barking for about the next fifteen minutes, and I’m sure deprived almost the whole neighbourhood of their well-earned sleep. I have never heard such words come out of my sister’s mouth before. This matter brings out a entirely new side of the word inconvenience. For instance, this morning the “ who can bark the loudest at the squirrel ” competition started. It’s Saturday, the start of your short but much awaited weekend. You feel like sleeping in after slogging away the whole week, and finally getting more than five hours of sleep. I was sleeping peacefully and blissfully dreaming about how I rescued my teacher from drowning. At the best part of my dream, the competition next door started. I groaned and could hear my sister echo it even more loudly. Even with my thick blanket and pillow wrapped around my head, their incessant barking could not be muffled. I let out and anguished sigh and opened my sleep stained eyes to look at the clock beside me. It was eight o’clock. I cursed loudly. There goes my sleeping-in plan. Their barks didn’t waver and they continued until the maid banged something loudly to make them stop. Even when they stopped, the bright morning sun prevented me from going back to sleep. The start of my weekend was ruined.

The dogs were not only a nuisance to us but to the whole neighbourhood. Besides their loud barks which I’m sure can be heard at least three doors down, they managed to push open their gate and run out to the road. I was in the study room when they first managed to escape outside and about five minutes later, I saw two boys running down the road as fast as they can shouting at each other while looking back at the dogs (all three of them) who were chasing them. Luckily, they made it back to their house safely as the dogs tired out fast. Even so, their job of terrorizing the neighbourhood was not finished, and they went up the road where there was a house (unfortunately the gate was open) and a mother and her child was outside watering the garden. I could hear the child as she screamed “ Mummy! The dogs are here!” I think the mother must have sprayed water at the dogs as I saw them run back to the neighbours house shaking their wet fur. Mr. A and Mrs B were oblivious to this as none of our neighbours complained about the dogs.

My driver also complained of the dogs and told us that when he was outside reading the paper, they had advanced menacingly towards him and barked at him. Fortunately, the dogs ran away when he banged his shoe loudly on the road to scare them. There was also this incident which happened during Chinese New Year which was not very far back. In Tropicana, the community mostly consists of Chinese and Indians with a handful of Malays. During Chinese New Year, there is a tradition of setting up a table filled with offerings in front of your house. The Chinese also pray to heaven at an auspicious time (usually late at night) and place their joss-sticks in a holder which is placed on the table. So, it was about 12:00 o’clock and the fireworks were still going on strong. The dogs had escaped once again and were on the road no doubt to cause mischief. At the house opposite us, we could see a man setting up a table while a little girl ran about playing. They had no gate as Tropicana is a very safe community as it is gated and a guard patrols the area at least every two hours. Suddenly, the fireworks started again and the whole sky lit up with the colourful sparks and the night’s silence was broken by the loud explosive noises. I couldn’t really see but I think the dogs were scared by the fireworks, and unable to get back inside the house, they ran into the nearest house with an open gate. We could the little girl screaming in fright and the man trying to scare away the dogs. The dogs ran back to our neighbour’s house and sat right outside the gate and howled.Our neighbours eventually realized that their dogs were outside and quickly asked their maid to bring them in. We laughed as we could see the man outside holding what looked like a long stout stick no doubt to scare the dogs away if they came again.

Unfortunately for us, our neighbour’s dogs were not the only problem. There is a small crooked tree in front of both our houses. Our neighbour’s maid always throws the rubbish there , making it an unpleasant scene. There were rusty objects, bags of leaves and garden waste, a huge rusting swing, and there was even the unbearable smell of dog poop. My mother was to put it lightly, quite upset as she thought the maid was to lazy to wash and take the dustbin out. When she saw the unsightly scene, she marched straight to the back where the maid was watering the plants and told her to not put the rubbish there anymore. The next week however, there was even more rubbish dumped at the tree, and my mother-furious called the security guards and asked them to come over and take a look. She called them right in front of the terrified maid who ran as soon as my mum turned. When the guards arrived, she showed them the huge rubbish dump while they shook their heads and nodded gravely. When my mother left them alone, most probably to talk among themselves about what should be done, they rang the doorbell of our neighbour’s house. When Mrs A came out , they explained why they came and asked if she would tell her maid not to put the rubbish there again. She exclaimed loudly and shouted at the poor guard shrilly in Cantonese then before they could say anything else turned towards the house and walked off. The bewildered guards stared at her then finally turned back to the bigger problem, the rubbish. When they finally decided to just call “Alam Flora” to pick the rubbish, they got on their motorbikes and was about to go when up opened a window and one of the daughters leaned out and shouted in more Cantonese to the guards. They quickly hurried to start their engines and drove away without looking back. The rubbish problem never really cleared up, and my mother gave up and declared that our neighbours were just stubborn.

The rubbish problem was not the only sign of our neighbour’s “stubbornness”. We had two tall palm tree on their side of the garden. They were costly but grew nicely and was soon quite tall. After a while, my father received a call from Mrs. B’s daughter complaining that the trees were dropping their leaves into their garden. She asked whether we could chop the tree down. We were furious and enraged at this request. Not only would it be a waste of money for we bought the tree, but we also had to pay to cut the tree. We were also infuriated as we had never complained about anything to them and had overlooked many things for the sake of being neighborly. However, we could not refuse their daughter’s request and had to cut down the tree. There were also the times when during their parties or open houses the painful sound of karaoke would come floating in. Usually they attempt to sing Chinese melodies which sound hurtful to the ears, especially if they try to reach the high notes. Even if they sing way out of tune or sing to loudly, their guests always enjoy the entertainment as we can hear them clapping and cheering with enthusiasm- or maybe their just clapping to be polite, we’re not sure.

To sum it all up, we could have made many numerous complaints about them.

Complaint number:

1. The dogs are depriving us and the neighbourhood of our sleep.

2. The dogs are making too much of a racket every time something moves.

3. The dogs are destroying our plants by chewing on them and reducing them to stems.

4. The dogs are terrorizing the neighbourhood.

5. When the dogs escape, they bite the rubbish bags leave rubbish strewn everywhere.

6. The faulty gate should be repaired so the dogs can’t go out.

7. There should not even be that many dogs.

8. Have you forgotten the rubbish problem?

I forgot to mention about complaint number #5. They drag the bitten rubbish bags containing who knows what inside and leave the road a smelly mess. Have you noticed, all the complaints are about their dogs except one? So, there you have it. Eight reasonable complaints we can lodge, each with a witness behind it. So why don’t we do it? Lodge a report, finally get to sleep-in, take a walk without being terrorized by their dogs. Well, the olive branch has been held out to them many times, and I guess this is the last branch. After that, we’ll just wait and see what happens I guess.