Poor kid, that must have been horrifying for her
I just read this entire thread from beginning to end. Wowsers. I can see how both parties are completely DEVASTATED. This is an all-around horrible situation for everybody involved, especially the kids (whether they are 10 or 18). Kids and teens don't normally think rationally in such situations, they act on emotion. It doesn't surprise me that the neighbor's kids are behaving the way that they are, though it's still pretty darn awful. They don't have their own pet chickens, so they couldn't possibly understand how much your daughter loves hers. It's likely that they just see it as your husband killed their beloved dog and, because of the amount of emotion involved in that, they can't rationalize why. To them, as non-chicken owners, and a family that also obviously loved their pet very much, it probably did seem like a senseless murder, and they are angry.
I would guess that the parents don't know their kids are harassing your family. Or perhaps they did not originally know but caught wind of it and that is why it's been quiet after the honking and whatnot. I don't know how well you know this family, but the rest of us don't AT ALL, so I don't think it's fair that we judge them based on the actions of 18 year old boys in an emotionally heightened state. I also wanted to add, because somebody mentioned something about the parents not apologizing, it's still very early. Everyone handles traumatic situations, loss, guilt, anger, etc differently. Maybe they are still dealing with all of these different emotions and just aren't ready to do so yet. I, personally, would have been apologizing up and down for dayyyyyssss if I was the owner of that dog, no matter how angry and devastated I was. But again, everybody handles situations like this SO differently, I don't think we can say they're horrible toxic people just based on the little information that we have.
Hopefully, everything will work out for your family. I definitely think it's a good idea to do the whole baby monitor and motion light thing. I also wanted to mention that you should be very cautious when you let your own dog outside. Make sure you supervise him when he's out in your yard, as you never know if those boys would try to retaliate in some way. I would guess that if they ARE going to retaliate, since they lost their dog, your dog might be a target. I don't mean to scare you, I just want to bring it to your attention. Your family does not need another loss. Be careful and best wishes to your family, especially the daughter that witnessed it all.
One more thing!
Quote:
I can't remember exactly what they're called, but at hardware stores they have those metal hooks that are like carabiners (I know I probably butchered the crap out of that word!) but instead of the spring-loaded closure they screw closed. If you put lock-tight on the thread and use it for your dogs' tags you should be good to go!
hehe
