What a day...

I have this neighbour who really hates me, at least I presume she hates me becaues whe keeps complaining about me to the Council and now I've received a 'final warning' for 'anti-social behaviour'! This is all to do with the dogs of course: I mean, that is the weapon with which she bludgeons me. she really is a loathsome creature, I've heard her berating her little boy, being so mean to him I nearly called the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children). But then I realised that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, and I know that a few times in my career as a mother (and indeed dog-owner) I have been very damned mean myself :(.

Anyway, having a letter off the council was kind of a bummer to say the least. It means that, if I don't succeed in challenging it (which I intend to) that the next 'infraction', decided, presumably by this woman neighbour, as she has taken it upon herself to monitor my every move and condemn me out of hand for everything I do, could lead to an eviction order. Nice. I've only lived here for twelve years, it's the only home my child has ever known, and I've been an EXEMPLARY neighbour all that time, more or less. I'd say I've done a lot more for the good of the general community than most of my neighbours, anyway. Always been smiling and helpful and involved. Apart from the last couple of years I suppose when I've been stressed out and depressed! But even so, I don't think I've ever done anything that could warrant being thrown out of my home!

Actually, I'd love to move out of here. It's a pig-sty, my flat, I hate housework and it shows! Also, I'm a soft touch, even for inanimate objects: things discarded on the street find a new home here. No, really, apart from that, the place is too small, and the estate is home to a particularly nasty breed of rodent-like teenagers who litter and vandalise and burgle and thieve and generally make nasty...and seriously, twelve years? Twelve years! I'd have been let out after seven for murder!

But the absolute worst thing about this threatening missive, which has disturbed my equanimity to the extent that I spent a good ten minutes sobbing into the chest of my ex- on the Heath, and intermittently throughout the day had tears threatening to spill from my tired swollen eyes (including, embarrassingly, and disturbingly, at my kids PTA (parent teacher association) meeting), is that I am reminded that according to the tenancy agreement I am not allowed to have three dogs...and I have three dogs, and I love all of them, and they're a family! And they're MY family! And, god, honestly, that puppy has been like a life-line to me! He cheers me up, he makes me feel HAPPY! I LOVE him!!!!!!!!!! Even if he is a bloody Earth Rat...and I don't want to have to give him up, I REFUSE to give him up! But if I don't, would they really evict me? Oh, I bloody hate this!!!!!! There's something very wrong in being so constrained by other people's dictates, people who neither know or care about one. Seems like an invasion of my human rights if you ask me: how can it be allowable to limit my family purely because I live in 'social housing'? If I were a home-owner they wouldn't be able to specify how many pets I could keep; or interfere in my life in this way. And by the way, the dogs, who I admit are terrible creatures at times, have never caused any real trouble...not like wars or economic meltdowns anyway...they're just normal, lively terriers...just a bit too lively, and a bit too HAPPY, for the miserable bitch at no ? (just in case one of my neighbours ever reads this...)

Three not a crowd, so far anyway...

Well I love having Toffee in the family! He's a real charmer, and absolutely gorgeous. He snarls when you try and go near his food though, and has been in more than one fight already with Spidey...hmmm, but they play together more, and clearly love and look out for one another...