[Dailydrool] I hate our neighbors

[Valerie via Dailydrool]

Hi all--bit of a rant. Hope it passes the moderators. I am in a tizzy fit again. We live in Hawaii, where dogs are not respected much. Traditionally here, dogs have been raised as livestock for guarding, hunting (boars), and even food. With the influx of immigrants from other not so far islands, dog-fighting has become another feature of island life, along with cock fighting. though both are technically illegal, neither is much prosecuted.  Today  the most common breed here is pitbulls. Pitbulls also turn out to be excellent pig dogs, so they are very popular. but my rant is not about pitbulls, some of whom are lovely dogs.

Dogs have not been kept as pets in Hawaii until the immigration of many other, mostly European and American cultures. Now, of course, there are many pet dogs in the islands. 

Several years ago we bought a fine, run-down old house up in the mountains above Kona on the Big Island and have been fixing it up. my husband and I are quiet, older, modest people. he works full time as a psychologist in a clinic which serves the indigenous and homeless. I quilt. We have pet basset hounds who are well loved and well cared for.
They are not barkers. I kept a log yesterday and the only barks were when they were playing with one another about 5:30 PM for less than ten minutes. and then for about four minutes when the UPS came to our door around six. 

On our evening walk day before yesterday, the local man who lives next door came out positively screAming at me about our barking dogs and how I need to shut them up, and added comments like "We have lived here a long time and you have not!"  (?)  I tried to use my best learned negotiation skills and said, "I hear you, I'll try to train them to bark less" and then walked on. he did not threaten me although he kept screaming at me. I am not sure if I feel a physical threat or not. I think not.

I hate these neighbors. these are the ones that had the pitbull which they chained under their house and starved to death. I called the Humane Society that time, who did nothing (because they must notify anyone they will visit in advance, and when they did so with these neighbors, the neighbors took the pitbull away in a car before the HHS arrived, and the dog was never seen again. what dog, officers?)  I expect that is why they dislike us as well. Sigh. neighborly conflicts, eh? Ah, well. Old as ever.

Since then I have been in a state of shaking rage totally out of proportion to the situation. I have made sure the dogs have not let out more than a woof, and have been trying to figure out some way to reduce my distress. Once, when I wrote about a similar situation on our previous island, (only then, our bassets were getting attacked by pits if we walked them)' a number of  people wrote me, "Move". and I totally understand this advice. sometimes I want to move back to the mainland. My husband does not. He loves it here, though he is surrounded by colleagues who appreciate him. I too have friends here, though they are not neighbors. We could not afford to move to the areas inhabited mostly by other mainlanders of similar ethnicity to ours. I tell myself "Get over it. This too shall pass". (Especially if our bassets are totally quiet). But I guess it enrages me. anyone else out there in a similar situation? How do youcope?