Getting the Mail

At the new house we have what one of my landlord's referred to as 'gang mailboxes.' You know, the kind with the key that are all lined up at a central location in a neighborhood.

Well, anyway, we have to walk just down the street to get our mail, and we walk by the side of a few houses and yards. The house across the street from us is one of those houses. Our neighbors who live there have a very boisterous dog who likes to run alongside you while barking and jumping on the wooden fence. I usually whistle at the dog or bark back. Since it is a tall wood fence, I have no idea what type of effect this has on the dog, nor do I know what kind of dog it is.

One day as I was walking to get the mail I was whistling at the dog, and it seemed a little more excitable than usual. When I got to the end of the fence line, the dog popped its head between two fence boards and was trying its hardest to get its shoulders through the hole. It was snapping its jaws at me, growling and barking loudly. I ran the rest of the way to the mailbox and then walked around the block to get back home. It was a good sized pitbull...

I have been careful since that day when I walk to get the mail. In fact, the dog's owners have been more careful as well, keeping the dog indoors more often than not. A few times when I have walked by I have had to step over pieces of fence that the dog has knocked out.

I told one of my roommates about this experience, and then the other after I convinced her to come get the mail with me on a different day. I told her that if the dog got through she just had to run faster than me. We walked by the fence and heard the dog, taking note that a few of the boards on the fence looked very bowed and a few even looked a little loose. As we were walking back the dog jumped on one of the boards and it came off with a breaking sound. We ran our guts out the rest of the way home.

We just got back from yet another venture to the mailbox and realized that the owners have caught on and started screwing the boards up, rather than just putting the nails back in the holes. I wonder how long those will last.

Solution: make the roommates get the mail from now on. ( :