I’ve been in a really crummy mood for a while now. I finally figured out what it is. So I am asking for your thoughts. To anyone who comes across this post. 

1. Dogs - Our backdoor neighbors have two dogs. They are some sort of boxer breed. Their yard space is as much as our (not very much, I’d say 10 feet x 10 feet). The dogs are left out all day long with a bowl of dog food (?) and a bowl of water which gets kicked and thus leaves dogs with no water all day. The dogs poop alot (which might explain the huge fly problem we have every summer), so that by the end of the day the yard is filled with dog shit. A lot of dog shit. The owners appear to clean the poop once a day and they seem to be gone all day. The dogs are chained to the wall and their movement is limited. They look really mangy even though I think their pure bred. Their skin looks unhealthy (warty like). I can see their ribcage…which I don’t think is normal. I can see this yard from one of our spare rooms. I am being honest when I say, that I am not sure if this qualifies as animal abuse. Do I call SPCA?

2. Cats - My neighborhood is filled with stray cats. I’ve counted at least 10 separate ones. When it got really cold I took one in (and wound up with cat poop on my plants) against landlord’s wishes. So do I report all these cats in?

3. Neighbor’s kids - This is the hard one…and its a very grey area. We have neighbors that live on either side of us that are related. There are about 10 or so kids varying in age from 15 to infant. The ones that share a wall with us are constantly arguing and screaming at all hours of the day. I hear kids crying but didn’t think much of it for awhile. The neighbors are civil with us, but they have gotten into some scary fights with other neighbors (dunno if their threats were meaningless).  Over the past few days I’ve seen two of the neighbor’s kids under 5 that were heavily bandaged. And it was upsetting. I don’t know if they were abused or they fell off the bed or a tree. I admit I’m jumping to horrid conclusions because I spoke to one toddler and asked her what happend to her mouth (I’m an idiot because she couldn’t respond because her upper lip and nose was taped with bandages), she keps saying "mom". She is about 3 or 4. The one mom (and her mom who lives with her) is a raving banshee and there has not been a single night in the time I’ve lived here when she has not spent her night screaming at someone in her house.

I will also admit that if the above does warrant me calling some sort of authority figure, I am afraid of getting involved legally. I am afraid of signing statements or testifying, because I am surrounded by crazies. There has been gunshots at night in front of my house a few months back and apparently the street one block away is somesort of drug den for coke dealers. And there are apparently ex-cons living all over my neighborhood. Yes. Ghetto.

Do I do something? Do I not do anything? If I should do something, how do I go about doing what I should do.  

The one mom who is constantly hollering at her kids had another baby. I cannot describe how much this enrages me.