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Ignorance Runs Rampant in Cheltenham Township

Before owning three dogs of my own, I often wondered how people could adopt a dog from a shelter, keep it for a few years, and then return it to the shelter. I do not wonder why people do it anymore, even though I still cannot understand it. The reason I now know why people do it is that there is situation developing in my neighborhood, a neighborhood in Cheltenham Township. All of my dogs have ‘issues’ that, in the hands of others, might cause them to return the dogs to the shelter. However, that will never happen to my dogs. I have a neighbor who thinks otherwise.

This neighbor has three children under the age of five. Trust me when I tell you that I know that this situation alone is enough to make you want to hurt someone or something. I have two children fourteen months apart in age, and I understand this neighbor’s frustration. However, I do not understand why she is taking her frustration out on my dogs.

My neighbor called Cheltenham’s Animal Control Unit on me one day last summer. She told the officer that my dogs were out in the yard at all hours of the day and night, barking constantly. That could not be further from the truth. I explained the real situation to the officer. He proceeded to question my other neighbors to see who was telling the truth. He could not find one other person to validate my neighbor’s story about my dogs. Nothing came of it and I thought that was the end of it. I thought wrong.

This neighbor’s yard is above my yard in the back. Her children tease my dogs, make barking and howling noises; they throw things down in my yard at my dogs. They do these things in full view of the mother, who says nothing. I have to tell them to stop. These incidents occurred before the neighbor called Animal Control, by the way.

Yesterday, I found two hot peppers in my yard, on my back steps. My neighbor has a pepper plant in her yard. I called Animal Control to tell them and the officer said that he would write up an incident report about it. He also told me that, “there is nothing else I can do about it.” He said Animal Control would use the report if anything ‘happened’. I assume he meant that if my neighbor poisons one, or all of my dogs, and they die, then he would have the report to use for ‘whatever’ reason. What good does that do? Why is it okay for this lunatic to throw things at my dogs in my yard? I am confused.

Nevertheless, this is Cheltenham and this is how things work here. If you have lived in Cheltenham Township for any length of time, you know that there is a certain air of snobbery among some of its residents. Many of the residents would rather be living in an area where the nearest neighbor is one-hundred miles away, no kids, no dogs. Instead, they behave as though they own the entire township and they make impossible demands.

I know one man who called the township to have their neighbor’s hedges trimmed because he could not look down Cottman Avenue to see if kids were spray painting graffiti on the bridge near WAWA. Another neighbor called the township when someone else’s grass grew a quarter of an inch above what the township says is permissible.

These two examples should give you some idea of the mindset of many of Cheltenham’s residents. If it does not, here is another one. I grew up in Olney and as a Cheltenham resident, I enjoyed reading the Olney Times, which we used to receive free weekly. The Olney Times stopped coming one day and when I called the newspaper’s office to find out why, this is what the woman told me: “A lot of Cheltenham residents called us and complained about receiving the paper , because they didn’t live in Olney and didn’t care about what went on in Olney.” I replied, “Yes, that sounds like Cheltenham”.

Hey, neighbors, SPAY AND NEUTER YOURSELVES!!!

Or move to a place where your nearest neigbor, with dogs and kids, are 100 miles away!

24: Redemption