The "what's in it for me?" View of Community

I received a call from the office of our community today, informing me that "several residents" (most likely my downstairs neighbor) have been complaining about our dogs. First of all, we don't have dogS. We have dog. No S. But we do foster dogs when a nearby rescue needs us to. So, yes, occasionally we have dogS.

The current foster dog is slightly larger than the others have been, and he did slip his leash once. Apparently, this has caused "several neighbors" to go into a panic. The office is receiving reports that the dog is allowed to run loose all over the community and is "unruly." They've been told we don't clean up after our dogs and that we're just generally breaking ALL the rules. In actuality, the only rule we're technically breaking is the one-dog-rule. We own only one dog, and the apartment community has been overlooking the fosters since they come and go. But I was told today that we must keep only one dog in the apartment.

The funny thing about all this is that the downstairs neighbor (who is not very friendly and is afraid of dogs) has only said something to me about the dogs ONCE, at which point I gladly took care of his concerns. That's it. Now I'm hearing that the office is receiving complaints frequently? What's up with that? What happened to the days when neighbors HELPED each other? Why does no one stop for a friendly chat "just because" anymore? Nowadays we only talk to our neighbors if there's a natural disaster or some large event that forces us to rely on one another. There is this pervading "what's in it for me?" attitude. If there's nothing in it for them, they're not going to bother with you. We recently had a squirrel rip into one of my delivered food packages and destroy $40 worth of food. The neighbor knew about this because he had asked me when I returned home if that was my package that the squirrel was getting into. Why in the world didn't he shoo the squirrel away and bring it inside until I got home? Where I used to live, people did that for one another all the time. We had an elderly neighbor receive medications in the mail that we gladly took inside for her until she got home. She was very grateful for our help and everyone was happy. There was nothing in it for us but we didn't want her medications to get stolen or overheat in the Florida sun. Why couldn't our neighbor have taken our package inside? Losing $40 worth of food for us is a HUGE deal. It means we pretty much go hungry for a week. We were very upset.

And now this dogS business. What the neighbor doesn't understand is that the dog we're currently fostering is a difficult dog. He is aggressive towards male dogs and that makes him very difficult to place, but in addition to that he was never taught how to properly walk on a leash and he has a LOT of energy. He's a big dog! He's been passed around from foster home to foster home for months now, and he's finally found a home where he fits in. He even gets along with our MALE dog! That is a HUGE deal! Because this dog has had no stability in his life up until now, his behavior issues were only getting worse. We're finally making progress - even getting him to walk noticeably better in his harness - and he has to be uprooted again. By not being a little tolerant, this neighbor is forcing this dog to loose his home. In fact, the dog may have to go into a boarding situation because there are no other suitable foster homes available right now. Sitting in a metal box 24 hours a day except for walks is NOT going to help this dog improve or find himself a home. And I seriously doubt that the neighbor would care about any of this even if I had the patience to explain it. :(

Anyway, my point in all of this is that we should work to form a REAL community where everyone is available to help one another. Not some false sense of community where, because all the buildings look uniform and everyone has a designated parking space, everything is wonderful and lovely. No. Life doesn't work like that. We NEED one another. We can't just go into our holes and pretend the neighbor next door doesn't exist. Be a little more tolerant than you're used to and expect the neighbor to do the same. This would work, people. It would make things a lot easier all around the country. Americans are too selfish and we need to get over it. Ask not what your neighbor can do for you, but what you can do for your neighbor.