I hate barking dogs. I love cawing crows. I’ve been thinking over why this is for nearly two weeks now, and I can’t figure it out.
Clearly I love the term for crows in groups – a murder of crows – because I’ve loved crime stories since I was eight years old. I like watching them gather in trees, scavenge for food, and keep their sharp eyes on me when I’m walking. I love hearing them call out to each other.
Lately I’ve been plagued by barking dogs. I work from home two or three days a week. On the weekends, I work as a writer. For hours on end, mostly during daylight, I hear barking dogs. They’re small dogs and I know small dogs have a tendency to bark at nothing, so maybe that’s the root of my annoyance — making noise for no reason. They also have high-pitched barks which can make the skin crawl, so it might be that. But I’m willing to bet there are a lot of people who find the screeching, cawing sound of crows grates on their nerves.
I like dogs. A lot. I don’t have one because cats rule the roost here, but I think small dogs are adorable and big dogs are regal.
It could be I interpret the dogs’ noise as distress and it upsets me that no one is finding out what’s wrong, but that’s not the whole story, because even though I sometimes feel for them, I’m mostly irritated.
I thought about calling the police non-emergency number, but when I looked up our local disturbance laws, I discovered I was supposed to visit the animal control website. That site asked me to download a file that explained I must first contact the owners and be willing to go to court to attest to the duration and times of the barking. I don’t know where several of these barking dogs even live, and I’m not inclined to go knocking on doors asking whether a cranky dog lives there.
The other requirement was that I keep a two-week log of times and length of barking. Did I mention I’m trying to work from home? And how do I log which dog is barking? It sounds to me like they really don’t want anyone to report barking dogs.
So why can’t I have more crows and fewer dogs? And why don’t the owners take better care of their dogs? And maybe that’s the primary source of my irritation — the humans behind the barking. Still, the barking drives me batty and the cawing make me feel content.
I completely understand your irritation. I’ve had that experience with dogs and birds and ??? I don’t mind normal bird sounds, and crows happily remind me of my childhood (I’m not sure why), but we had a tropical bird on the next street that drove me insane. Thankfully, for whatever reason, I no longer hear it.
I’ve had many experiences with dogs over the years. But now our neighborhood has some creature — we can’t tell if it’s dog, bird, or even human — that makes an eerie sound for hours on end. It’s torture.
I hope the closed windows of winter season will give you some relief. At least it might muffle the sound enough that you’ll be able to block it out.
I forgot to say I love the term “murder of crows”. I’ll have to look that up, apparently the word murder has a meaning I don’t know.
That dog/bird/human sounds extremely creepy. I first found out about the ‘murder of crows’ from a movie with that title.
Well. You know from my book title that I have an affinity for those lovely black birds as well. They are just so freaking cool. And the strange spirit in Ravenmarked–the Morrag, a kind of twist on the Celtic goddess of war who appeared as a raven or crow–shows up as a whole murder of crows all fluttering into the shape of a woman.
I love bird sounds, honestly. We have owls near our house. One of them hoots all day long. Apparently, she doesn’t know she’s supposed to sleep during the day. But when the windows are open, it’s really fun to hear her. I call her Hedwig after Harry Potter’s owl…
I don’t mind dogs too much… I’m able to block out the barking. Maybe that’s what happens when you have four kids. I hear them bark a lot–they just don’t bother me much. EXCEPT–in the middle of the night. We have a big black lab/St. Bernard mix (or something huge like that) who lives behind us, and he barks a lot at night. He’s LOUD. We also have skunks near our house, and coyotes not too far away, so every time one of those critters passes through, he barks. And the coyotes just move on, but the skunks… Well, they get scared, and then… Yeah. *gags*
I figured we agreed on those lovely black birds
I’m pretty sure the reason I can’t block out the barking is the emotion I’m attributing to it — that the dogs are lonely or upset.
Barking dogs are a pain, and so are large dogs which their owners can´t control. I am not that scared of them myself, but our daughter is, and so often her walks around our cottage have been destroyed because she met daft dog owners who think everybody adores their unruly monster.
Crows are dark and sinister but in a good way. I met one once which planned to walk across the road when I came by in my car. It stepped back on the pavement, but you should have seen the dark looks it sent me
Even if you’re not afraid of dogs, it’s difficult to adore an unruly one.
I’m glad you feel the same as I do about crows. When I was in Munich in January a few years ago, I was struck by the crows. For some reason, I couldn’t stop thinking of them as “German” crows, yet at the same time, they were exactly like my “California suburban” crows
I have to admit, I’m irritated by barking dogs. Its the owners I get mad at.
I’m glad to know I’m not alone.