We have a neighbor, and I'm not saying who it is, that constantly complains about cats pooping in her yard. I know. I know. She's obviously not paying attention to what's going on around her, or she's so bored with her life that she has time to worry about a cat pooping. Sad, but true.
Anyway, on Tuesday afternoon, my partner and I found a Notice of Violation from the City of Fort Worth tagged to our door. Yes, really. I couldn't make this up. Us. The people who pick up strays and have them fixed because it's the responsible thing to do. The same people who take injured cats to the vets, nurse them back to health and find them homes. Yes, us.
The "Notice of Violation" states that we failed in:
1- Restraint of Animal(s)
My animals do not ever leave the house without me.
2- Failure to provide/display current rabies vaccination.
Don't you have to be asked for it to consider it a failure to show proof?
-And-
3- Unaltered animal(s)/no intact permit
All of our animals sing soprano, why would I need an intact permit?
Additional Comments from the code officer states,
"getting complaints that you allow your cat to leave your property."
Okay. Okay, I give...only when he asks nicely for the car keys.
Really? This has to be some kind of a joke...
I called the "officer" and asked which one of our animals were seen leaving our property.
His response was "read the pamphlet."
Did that answer my question? NO. So, I asked again, and again he came back with one of two standard answers, either "he's your cat" or "read the pamphlet."
He said and I quote, "a cat was seen leaving your property."
In my infinite wisdom, I asked, "If birds fly over my house, are they considered mine too?"
His response was...you guessed it! "Read the pamphlet."
This continued for twenty minutes.
I asked for a supervisors name and after another twenty minutes of the officer yelling and threatening me that his supervisor would side with him, he finally released the "secret" name. I called and left a message. Can you believe I still haven't heard back from him?
Here's what has me chapped.
1- My animals don't ever leave my property without me. Period end of discussion.
2- This Code Compliance Officer is accusing me of violating city code when he can't even give me a description of the cat that allegedly pooped in my neighbor's yard. As if it's my problem and
3- The alleged cat was considered mine because he was seen leaving my property. Really?
Is this truly about the cat? No, but it's going to cost me time, energy and money to prove the cat isn't mine, so I don't get fined.
It's about this ill-mannered officer trying to force us into taking responsibility for the cat because he failed to do his job and that's not my problem.
My animals may be fixed, but my titanium ovaries are intact, baby. Bring it on!
Shame on you Fort Worth and Mayor Moncrief for allowing city employees to treat the city's residents so poorly.
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2 comments:
I had something similar happen to us once, Annie.
We live behind a man who has two dogs. When my oldest son lived here with his dog, our dog and his would bark at the back neighbor's dogs. Those dogs would answer in kind and if no one was home, they might bark for hours.
But when the neighbor complained, we were the ones who got the ticket. I then had to go to court and tell them about the neighbor's dogs also so barking. After listening to both sides, the judge told us to work it out or else.
The neighbor was mad and I was happy. We started keeping our dogs in more and his kept barking. He came over one day to ask if we'd turned him in. We hadn't as dogs will be dogs and bark to protect their territory. He ended up paying the fine because the person with the complaint that time ended up working for the city and the dogs barked at him. Thank god ours were inside that day or we'd been in the same boat.
Now the neighbor just yells at our dog if he's barking and doesn't complain any more. If he'd talk to us in the first place the city folks would have never been cruising the alley to see who was and wasn't barking.
Good luck and I hope all goes well.
Lynn
Thanks Lynn,
Unfortunately, this has caused more grief than resolution as our neighbor's cat continues to visit the complaintants property. It is a cat and last time I checked it was impossible to reason with such an animal.
If she had only asked us, we could have told her, yet again, that he doesn't belong to us.
We love animals and I personally don't care if he comes for a visit.
Thanks for the heads up, perhaps it would be best to see this resolved in a courtroom.
Annie :0)
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