Here's what has happened to lead to the poisoning of my Gretchen.

We have been broken into/ robbed 5 times in 2 1/2 years since we have moved to Jeffersonville. Each and everytime I suspected our neighbors. The last attempted break was three weeks ago and ruined 3 of our doors. I had the lights on timers, the tv was on and we had a car in the drive. To the average joe robbing a random house, it would appear that someone was home and up at whatever time they were planning on breaking and entering. Only our neighbor would know that we were not at home.

A month before that someone tried getting into the garage for the 3rd time but didn't succeed.

Sometime last fall my neighbor gave me our garage door opener.  He claimed he got it from a previous owner. Our guns were stolen from the garage our first summer in the home. The door was not busted in however, the door may not have been locked...thanks to my oh so trusting husband. However, the person who took the guns knew were they were hidden and put everything back in place, which leads to my neighbors. We also suspect the neighbors had been in the garage more than once.

To show what kind of neighbors we have

The day we bought the house, the AC unit from the garage was ripped out of the wall. It is now in my neighbors window.
They rigged the electric meter so they can stop it from turning by drilling a hole in the glass and sticking something in it to block the wheel from turning. They only do that in the off hours so not to get caught.
He had a back hoe that he told Brandon he took from work and they never knew he had it. The motor blew (supposedly) and he parted it out. He was never caught with it.
His son has been busted for pawning items that don't belong to him.
He has hooked his own cable up. I saw him do it and almost took a picture. I should have.


So. Because of this last break in, Grizzly our shelter 'guard dog' barked until he lost his voice. The neighbor never mentioned that the dog barked all weekend, another neighbor told us about it. I wondered why Griz sounded wierd and huffy. The neighbors wife told me that her husband came over to see what Griz was barking about and that they went to the doors and knocked.  So, they knew we were gone because she said she saw us packing up the van and leaving yet she claimed they came to knock on the door. It led me to believe they were trying to cover their asses. So, I called the electric company and turned them in for stealing electricty. I assume they know I'm the one that turned them in. They haven't spoke to us since that Sunday morning that the electric company came to their house and ripped the meter off the house. This Sunday marks two weeks that they haven't had electricty. Brandon and I saw them feed the dogs one day. I said something about it not realizing the source of the food was from them. Brandon saw the neighbor feeding the dogs at the fence and once he realized Brandon was looking, he acted like he was shooing the dogs away.  I kind of joked that they were trying to poison the dogs. I never thought they would two days later.


Another thing that has happened was to my chickens. I got a hen and a rooster last fall and let the hen sit on two eggs which gave me three baby chicks. All of my young chickens have disappeared within the last couple days. All I have is my hen and rooster that I originally had. Not too upsetting to me really, I've got bigger things to deal with right now. I'm sure they've done something to them though. They do kind of roam around so it's hard to tell.

So Gretchen was kill out of retaliation.  All I can think of is what if Gretchen had Waylons toy, (which she did pick up some balls of Waylons from time to time) and she slobbered something onto it and then Waylon put it in his mouth. They could have killed my children. That is all I can think about.


So, I told Levi about Gretchen. I told him that her kidneys were weak and that is what caused her to be sick and then die. He cried and cried, calling her name. It was heart breaking. Still is. Nash understands now and he cries from time to time. They write to her and draw pictures for her. I'm so glad we had a good dog for the boys and I hope they never forget her. I know Nash is young but surely he will remember Gretchen. When I was the boys age we lost our German Shepherd Nuba, who from what I remember was as great a dog as Gretchen. I have fond memories of him at my age now so I'll cross my fingers they will never forget Gretchen.

With this I will close with the message Levi wrote to Gretchen and the drawings Nash made.

 

Levi wrote, "Gehn I wel mish yu" which = "Gretchen I will miss you"
Nash drew Me, Brandon, Levi and himself on the left and Gretchen is the upside down figure on the right. I think that signifies her in her backyard grave. My boys have such compassion.

Something great has happened lately....