open letter to my neighbor

hello. although we've been living next door to one another for just over a year now, we haven't really met. this wasn't what i had planned, but we take what opportunities we see, i suppose. i feel at least partly to blame for the fact that we don't really know each other. i live in two different places, so i'm not really next door to you all the time. i've seen you out in the yard plenty of times and intended to say hello, but each time you're out there you're screaming. at the dog. at your kids. at the neighbors behind you. at some guy who might have been anyone- boyfriend, delivery guy, lawn service. i learned long ago never interrupt a screaming woman, especially one i don't know, so i've always just gone back into the house, left you to your screaming.

but i've talked to your dog. a girl, i think, older. golden retriever. she seems sweet and i've said hi a few times when she was out in the yard alone. and then a few weeks ago when i was raking leaves i noticed you were putting together a dog kennel. concrete slab, chain link fence, wooden dog house. wait. now that i look, the dog house is on the outside. there's no place in that pen for a dog to get warm. you chose a nice spot, though, right next to the bedraggled swingset and the scattered yard junk- milk crates, broken grill, etc. it seemed odd you'd put such an old dog, an indoor dog, into a kennel like that. maybe you got a new job that requires you to be out longer and your dog can't stay in the house so long. but then i saw the puppy. you seem to like him. i haven't heard you yell at him at all. he certainly is cute and very playful. did you build the kennel for him? i'm not sure why you would. he seems like a house dog, too.

it's not that i don't like kennels. i know some hunting dogs and they live in kennels because they are working dogs. but working dogs are very expensive and are generally checked on and kept healthy. they have dog houses inside the pen, you know, so they can get inside them and keep warm. you don't treat your dogs like they're expensive. little pets don't fare so well in impromptu kennels in catskill winters. bare concrete. frozen water dish. do you know how cold the concrete feels on their feet when the air is 22 degrees?

that's what brings me to the writing of this letter. i hadn't seen the dogs in the kennel and i figured maybe it was something you wanted to get set up now but wouldn't use until spring. and then i took our own little dogs outside. they're not fans of the cold and are able to pee and be back inside in mere seconds when the thermometer dips. it was hovering around 22, so i thought they'd be extremely fast but guthrie went right toward the fence, barking. i figured maybe he saw a squirrel or some sort of yeti (it's very cold today) so i let him lead me toward the fence, toward your yard. when we came round the fence i saw what he was barking at. your dogs. standing on the concrete slab, huddled together. they didn't even bark. they just looked over at us. it was 22 degrees and that was the warm spot of the day. guthrie kept barking. i took my own dogs back inside and tried to think. i wondered if maybe i might go over and knock on your door, let you know your dogs were freezing. i thought maybe you forgot them. i'm not making fun of you. when i was in fourth grade, my dad sent me to my room as punishment for something i did and then went off to play a golf game. he forgot me completely. mom let me come out when she realized what happened, but when we heard dad drive up, i went back to my room and we pretended i'd stayed in there all day. he felt pretty bad. i didn't want you to feel bad. i just wanted your dogs to be warm.

i looked out the window and saw you come out. i guess guthrie's barking maybe reminded you that your own dogs were outside. you brought them back in and i didn't come over to talk to you. there didn't seem to be any point. but i want to tell you something. i come from a fairly long line of dog liberators. next time i see your dogs outside, i will come to let you know. if you're not there, i'll bring them to my house and warm them up. i'll keep them safe and when you come to get them, we'll talk. i'm sure we'll be able to come to some sort of understanding. but if it happens a second time don't come to my house looking for your dogs. they won't be yours anymore.