Before you complain to the police about our dogs …

I first want to say that we are sorry for any disturbances our dogs have caused with their barking. In all honesty they are good dogs and don’t bark unless there is a reason. After reading today’s (10/30/13) edition of Coulee Cops I now know who has complained to the point that we received a letter in the mail from the police chief stating that if it wasn’t corrected we would be fined, daily, until the problem was corrected. So, I am writing this to say …

1. You have my phone number. Please call me if my dogs are keeping you up at night. I can’t afford to be fined for my dogs barking at the local wildlife we have had this summer/early fall running about our town. Last month that bear ran right through my yard, right past the dogs, and only a few weeks ago was standing on my back portch looking Flint right in the face. When he returned with his guy, it was gone. It isn’t afraid of the dogs.

2. The house next door is empty, has been for years, and raccoons have made a comfy home in the back yard of that place. I don’t know what to do about these two things since it is illegal to discharge a firearm in town.

Those are the things my dogs bark at in the middle of the night. They bark because there is another animal in their yard, there are other dogs barking or howling and they join in, people walking by, with or without their dogs. They also bark because they can hear people close by fighting, yelling at each other in their garage or home, this upsets them. So I would like to ask that you simply call me when they are keeping you up at night. I would rather be kept up at night also than fined for something I have no control over. So, let’s help each other, not make the issue worse.

April Smith