Look, nobody wants to be kept up at night because there is a dog barking nearby.
But in no way should the response to that situation involve taking matters into your own hand by killing the offending dog.
That, sadly, is what happened to Tara, a renter in Burnaby who shared her story after reading my series of blogs about tenant disputes. Tara’s dog Boo suffered from anxiety and would get stressed when Tara went out without him. Things got worse during the pandemic because she was working from home for a long time, meaning Boo got even more dependent on her.
“I ended up moving into a shared house earlier this year that allowed pets,” Tara said. “There were four other people in the house and they all had pets, although only one other dog. When my office started ordering people back to work, I fought it, but eventually had to give in. Well, Boo would be upset each day after I would leave for work. He started barking. Not all the time, but I guess when he’d hear noises and for the first few minutes after I left the house.”
Her housemates were not impressed. Some issued mild complaints to the landlord, but one person in particular started “freaking out” about the situation because he was still working from home.
“I tried taking Boo to one of those doggie daycares, but after two months, I just couldn’t afford it anymore because my hours at work were cut back,” she said. “This guy’s complaints got worse and worse. I did feel really bad about it until one day I came home and Boo was motionless. I couldn’t do anything to wake him up.”
Tara rushed Boo to the vet, but they couldn’t do anything about it and the dog died, devastating her.
“The vet told me Boo had been poisoned, but they didn’t know what it was,” she said. “I’m sure it was the complainer, but I can’t prove it, of course. I ended up moving out because I couldn’t see him without wanting to just hit him … I get being upset about the situation, but this was horrible. The ironic part of it is I was planning on moving anyways because of the situation. If this person had just been more patient.”
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
