Anne's Crime

I did a bad thing last night... I think I even broke the law. My turmoil over it kept me from falling asleep, as I played and replayed the scene in my head. The only thing that allayed my anxiety was Rich's glee over what I did.

Last month I was away in the United States visiting family for over 2 weeks. Each night when I talked with Rich on Skype, he sounded lonely and unhappy. The worst part for him was not my absence, though, but the unceasing NOISE in our neighborhood. Rich is a quiet, contemplative man and after a long day of teaching economics to Latin American teenagers (which he describes as "like trying to stab someone with a rope") he needs quiet. I think he could bear it f it were only the planes flying out from the nearby airport, the birds and geckos that screech morning and evening, or the thunder that makes one's chest tremble. But add to these the incessant car alarms (that never mean burglary), the honking of taxis and school buses, and the late night parties that spill out into the street, and it pushes him over the edge. My kind, considerate, funny husband becomes an angry lunatic.

Worst of all are the barking dogs. When we were looking for a house to buy we had a running joke with our realtor. We wanted a block with NO DOGS. And of course what happened was that we bought a house in a block with no dogs, and now, a year later, there are at least half a dozen. Panamanians who buy a house in this neighborhood first build a wall around it, and then get a dog. They are quite worried about robbers and the dogs are procured more for protection of property than for pets.

Our next door neighbor got a little mutt recently that is mostly cute and friendly, but goes nuts when the neighborhood stray cats come around. Our neighbor directly across the street got a large dog which we seldom see or hear. A neighbor down the block has a dog that barks only when the other dogs start barking, but when this happens, he is the loudest of all. And then there's the neighbor diagonally across from us whose dog has put us over the top. He has a tiny little chihuahua, which barks like crazy, but only when it is outside, and a large pit bull whose deep, hostile bark can penetrate any closed window and interrupt even the loudest TV program. The pit bull lives outdoors when the family is not at home, which is much of the time. Whenever the dog is home alone, it barks incessantly.

We wondered if our neighbor realized that his dog barks so much when he is not home, since, by definition, he isn't there to hear it. On many evenings Rich or I have walked across the street to see what was causing the dog to bark so constantly, only to have it turn toward us, snarling behind its gate, and bark even louder. The noise is unnerving because it sounds so angry. Rich did an Internet search and found an article explaining why barking dogs are so annoying, from the physical and neurological effects to the emotional and hormonal impacts.

Last night I was really tired after a week of company and a busy day of chores following our guests' departure. I was looking forward to reading myself quietly to sleep, but at 9 pm the pit bull was in full chorus and I could neither concentrate on my book nor go to bed. I got a bottle of cold drinking water and walked to the nearby park to look at the mountains and the stars. I strolled up and down the nearby streets, hoping that by the time I got back our neighbor would have come home and taken his dog inside. Twenty minutes later, I walked back toward our house and the dog was still holding forth. Rich was out in the middle of the street, staring at the dog and shaking his head. There was a car in the driveway, but the house was dark, so we assumed that no one was home. As I reached the house, all of a sudden I stepped up to the gate behind which the pit bull was lunging, and squirted him with some cool water from my bottle. He was momentarily silent, and retreated from the gate. Rich and I went into our house and I got ready for bed as the dog resumed barking.

About fifteen minutes later, our doorbell rang. Rich opened the door and I heard a man's angry voice begin berating Rich and me for trespassing on his property and for squirting his dog. He went on and on, as Rich listened quietly, interjecting only a question now and then, such as: "Do you know that your dog barks for hours and hours when you are not home?" And: "Are you aware that there are children and workers who live on this block who have to go to bed early and get up early?" The man said that if we didn't like the noise we should move to Cerro Azul! I was in my nightgown, so I stood inside the front door, listening, ready to try to defend Rich if if got ugly. After the man's wrath was spent, he stalked down our steps, aross the street, and into his house. Rich came inside and I took his hand.

"I'm so sorry!" I said.

"What? NO! Don't be sorry! I'm not sorry at all!"

"But what I did was wrong. I should have gone over to talk with them about the problem instead of acting out. The only thing is, we've had every indication from how that guy treats his family that he wouldn't have been receptive, and I would have struggled more than ever with my Spanish in front of such a hostile audience."

"OK, but I am going to look up whether or not there is a law in Panama against dogs barking at all hours!"

Rich spent the next hour happily surfing the Net looking up barking dogs, dog whistles, Panamanian law, and related topics. I went to bed.

The dog was silent.