Ok, so after I left my ex, I lived at my Mom and Stepdad's second house while it was empty and before they could sell it.  It was in a newer area, the kind where there is absolutely no yards and no buffer zones between you and the neighbors.  Literally, at one part of the property line, instead of a fence, it was the side of the neighbor's house.

So theres these people next to me.  It's a 3 bedroom house with a den and they had to have at least 15 people living there at one time, half of which were kids.  They also were apparently related or really close friends with someone across the street, cause the parents would sit in the yard across the street while the kids ran wild.  And I mean wild.  More than once, they dashed in front of my car as I was leaving for work, and thought it was funny.  Sometimes the parents would yell something at them, but I don't know what it was since none of them spoke English.

For the most part I was a home-body, so 90% of the time it didn't bother me.  But one day, out of nowhere, there was a rooster crowing.  If you've never actually been around a rooster or owned one, you probably don't know that they crow ALL FREAKIN DAY!!!!! For as long as the sun is up.  We have tiny backyards to begin with so where ever the damn thing is I could hear it, but the worst part was that the outside of my bedroom wall was their yard and thats where he crowed.  From about 5am to 7 pm every day.  It took 6 weeks of daily phone calls to Animal Control, Code Enforcement, and the Sheriff's Non-Emergency line before the thing was gone.  It was legal to have "farm animals" in the city if you were on a lot bigger than a 1/2 acre, but we were way less then that, so it took forever to explain to the authorities it wasn't allowed where we are.  Then they would come out, but as soon as the neighbors saw some sort of official car, they packed it away in the garage and wouldn't open the door (they really were afraid of Immigration Enforcement, that much I understood from them).  Finally, I called and was in the backyard when the thing crowed.  I told the lady that if it wasn't gone in 48 hrs, I was going to start throwing rat poison over the fence to kill it.  It was gone the next day.  A day after that, my car was egged.  And from then until I moved out, anytime I stepped outside, all the kids crowed at me non-stop.

Can someone explain to me why it was so important for them to have a rooster?  A chicken I could understand.  It would provide eggs for a while, and then make one good dinner.  But a rooster?  And just one?  They weren't running a fighting ring with only one.  Why?  It makes no sense.  None.  And if they really wanted a farm animal, why did they have to pick the LOUDEST one?  I wouldn't mind if it was one of almost any other animal and wouldn't have reported it: goat, pig, sheep, a chicken, even a cow, as long as it was only one.

And as for them being mad I called:  Why should I have get used to your lifestyle?  What makes you so damned special that I should just have to deal?  I had to keep my yard mowed to keep with code, so you can get rid of that (for them) useless nuisance.

~Ruby
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