AITA for telling my neighbor to “call ghostbusters” after he complained about my dead dog barking?
I (mid 20s F) had a very old dog who recently passed away at 15 years old. Toward the end of her life she had vision problems and trouble controlling her bowel movements.
I live in a townhouse with a small private garden area that has both grass and decorative stones (it’s my property). Sometimes my dog would accidentally poop on the stones instead of the grass. I always cleaned it as soon as I noticed, but admittedly there were times I didn’t see it immediately because I was juggling work and school while caring for a senior dog that needed constant attention.
My neighbors (one particular couple) became increasingly hostile about it. They would repeatedly complain, point things out even after I had already cleaned them, and eventually wrote me a formal letter about the situation.
To prevent any future issues, I even installed a small fence so my dog could no longer access that part of the garden. Oddly, then the husband of that neighbor complained about the fence too because apparently they liked being able to see into my yard.
A month after my dog died, this neighbor’s husband knocked on my door and started angrily complaining that my dog had been barking nonstop for a week.
The problem is… my dog had already been dead for a month. Yes, I lost my best friend, that I was inseparable from for 15 years.
I immediately burst into tears because I was still grieving heavily, and I told him, “Then maybe you should call ghostbusters, cause my dog is dead,” before shutting the door.
Now I’m wondering if I overreacted, because technically he had no way of knowing how emotional I still was or that my dog died, but at the same time it felt incredibly insensitive after months of tension over my elderly dog.