Chicken shits (CSes) - that's what they are. When you have a problem with someone, do you avoid all means of bringing up the problem directly with them? Do you get other people to do your dirty work? If you do, then you're a CS I tell you. And you know what? I hate CSes.

The latest CS? Our new next door neighbor who apparently has a problem with our cat MJ. Our cat is supposedly killing birds and squirrels. But if you've watched our cat "hunt", you'll know that he's not skilled enough to catch any sort of creature. Could it be probable that another cat in the neighborhood is the culprit? Sure. But they've decided to take up the issue with us.

Hold on, correction. They've decided to take up the issue with Ariel and Animal Control. Not US. In fact, other than meeting the gentleman that lives next door before we even bought the house, we haven't heard hide nor hair from them ever since. So they have a problem with our cat chasing away the birds and/or squirrels. Fine. But the first thing they do is tell Ariel about the problem and then tell her to tell us. How cowardly is that?

Then yesterday we get a notice from Animal Control telling us that they received a complaint of our cat roaming free and destroying public and private property. Another chicken shit move I tell you. And what's even funnier is that they enclosed a copy of the statute that says "no dogs may be permitted to roam free and will be considered at large if found off of a leash", only they crossed out "dog" and wrote in "cat" instead. That seems real "legal" to me. NOT. Jen called Animal Control and they said the "cat" version is on the books with city hall.

Anyway, I would think that if they had a problem with us, they would come talk to us directly. But no. They are a bunch of CSes hiding behind our daughter and Animal Control. Bah.

This happened with some other neighbors a few years back who apparently had a problem with me not mowing the lawn frequently enough. I admit, I tended to let the grass get on the high side before I mowed it, but it wasn't completely unsightly or overgrown. But did anyone come tell me they wished I mowed the grass more? Of course not. They waited until after we had moved out of the house and then proceeded to tell the owners of the house we were renting from that the lawn was overgrown during parts of the summer. Gee. Thanks. Thanks for letting me know so we can come to some sort of resolution. More CSes I tell ya.

And then some other neighbors who couldn't get their house to sell (honestly because I think they overpriced it) and proceeded to blame the neighbors on the other side of us. Again, did they go ahead and tell them directly that their yard (devoid of grass) and abundant with children's toys was detrimental to the housing prices on our street? Of course not. They called the city and complained until the city sent out some official telling them that they needed to clean up their yard. What a bunch of CSes.

You know, if you have a problem with me, please come tell me. Don't hide behind my kids and city officials until you've had a chance to talk to me. And if you do accuse me of violating some sort of law, you better have damn good proof as well.

Related Ars thread I started

[Update: Jen talked with another one of our neighbors today and found out that the CSes are extremely anal about other people's pets in their yard. So it looks like it wasn't a personal attack on our cat specifically. And supposedly City Hall has a law on the books that requires people to keep their pets contained in their own property. They just don't really enforce it unless people have a specific problem and complain about it. That's fine. But it still doesn't change the fact that these new neighbors are a bunch of CSes.]