Real-life MMD:Dogs destroyed neighbour's signed ball. Should we replace it?

meher

rachelolio wrote: »

I bet Meher reads the Daily Mail.
.

i don't know what daily mail says, you seem to know a lot, so you're the avid reader, not me

He hath made a pit, and digged it, And is fallen :rotfl: into the ditch which he made.

Tigeress

Wow Meher, you really are making your own fairytale here and putting lots of words into the OPs mouth and actions to their dogs without any proof whatsoever. It amazes me that you do this and yet make the neighbour and their son out to be perfect angels.

The OP says they would happily replace the ball with a normal one, but because of the way their neighbour is behaving they are seeking advice on their thoughts that they are not so sure they could happily replace it anymore, nowhere does it say that they have actually said to the neighbour 'no I will not buy a replacement normal ball because of your threats' or whatever other wording you seem to have made up in your head, the OP is seeking advice first ( Thinking bad thoughts does not inherently make you a bad and terrible person, it's your actions that make you who you are). The dogs may not have torn the ball to shreds, they may have simply punctured it, but either way it's their garden and the owner has taken reasonable actions to keep the dogs contained and prevent such things as this happening. In law you would consider what the 'reasonable man would or wouldn't do' and the dog owner has certainly taken all reasonable steps with their dogs, short of putting a net over their garden like someone else jokingly suggested. They are being reasonable in offering/planning to offer a replacement normal ball, but it is true the child (however old they may be) needs to learn that they should take more care with their belongings (valuable or not) and not learn that they can do with them whatever they want and expect them to be replaced by someone else (parent/neighbour/whoever).

(Text removed from MSE Forum Team)

As for the OP -I think that there is most likely a bit of responsibility held by both parties, and offering to replace the (normal) ball is a very good gesture of goodwill, whilst mentioning to the neighbour that if it happens again you will not replace it as you have 6ft fences for a reason, and could the neighbour please ask the son to take more care in future as stray balls/toys falling in your garden could cause serious damage to your dogs (particularly when you are not home to supervise them) and costly vets bills to you.

melissa-elizabeth

Meher if a child kicked his valuable ball over your fence and it smashed a window, would you call that even? Or would you demand that his father pay to replace the window, but not offer to replace the ball that got cut up by the window glass of your home that punctured it?

Honestly your comments crack me up.

Do NOT pay to replace this ball; it landed on your private property, so it was fair game for your dogs. Kids should not be kicking their balls about streets anyway, my child would not be allowed to in case they broke a window, hit someone’s car or damaged someone’s garden items and I had to foot the bills - there are parks for that!

And for the person that said that the child could have climbed into her garden to get the ball and been attacked by the dogs… Well actually that would be the parents fault for not teaching the child that you should not go into someone’s private property.

If the ball was that valuable, the child should not havebeen playing for it in the first place. I think in this case, the parent messed up for not teaching the child some values. Also he would have no chance in court.

meher

hey play the ball man, not the peson

no need to get personal, it is completely uncalled for, such abusive and vilifying comments

Tigeress wrote: »

you sound like you would be the nightmare neighbour to live next to

speaks more about the person that utters it than about me and that is what "remember when pointing a finger at someone, there are Three more pointing back at you" means

other than that i refuse to indulge any further because as a general rule i don't give the power away to anyone to drag me down to levels i'm unfamiliar with

Anyway on a final note:

Children play with their toys and footballs and kites and many other gadgets and they may land on their neighbours garden - NORMAL SOCIAL ACTIVITY. The neighbors dogs destroying it beyond recognition, neighbour refusing to address their grievance, arrogantly responding and aggravating their feelings - ABNORMAL AND ANTI SOCIAL.

Now pay for it and make an attempt to be normal and civilised.

Tigeress

Meher, I am not trying to say that you definately are a nightmare neighbour, hence the 'sounds like' and 'seems' I am purely basing my judgement on your own posts and only the posts in this specific thread. Apologies if it offends, (though maybe there is some truth there if it does). I also don't see forming an opinion and presenting it the way I did to be abusive (mainly because it is purely my opinion and I have not outright called you anything, nor would I, especially as the only 'facts' I would have to back myself up would be your posts and they are only an indication of what you may be like, not what you definately are), but it's possible that you and I may differ on our views in many many ways. I only posted because of your posts and the other person that deemed the dogs hells hounds or some such (without any proof), I merely wanted to point out the one sidedness of your comments and the fact that you seemed to be pulling 'facts' out of thin air to support them. But maybe I overstepped the bounds *shrugs*. (Though 'pot' and 'kettle' spring to mind with you having called the OP arrogant, putting words in their mouths and such... seems somewhat villifying to me).

I am willing to leave it at that, the overwhelming majority believe that the OP should either not give in to the neighbour/buy a normal replacement ball just this once as a gesture of goodwill and/or seek their own legal advice, and as any of those options are what i would agree with I see no reason to continue posting myself.

stevie180971

Tell him as it was the dog who destroyed the ball, he will have to take the dog to court!! As everyone else says he's no chance, it would be laughed out of court.

grahamb_2

Call his bluff and let him be a laughing stock to all those who know him.

rubix_76

It would be different if the dog got through a hole in the fence, but as the dog was securely in the owners garden no case to answer. A ball replaced is the most that should be offered and even then i'd hesitate.

What if my cat jumped over a neighbors fence and was attacked by a dog. if however a dog broke through a neighbors (un-maintained) fence and mauled my cat - similar scenario me thinks.

Belfast_Girl_2

I'd love to know what your neighbour would be doing had his son, for example, kicked the ball into a fast-flowing river. Take legal action against the rivers agency for theft?

sparky0107

As almost everyone above has said. If this signed football was valuable, why was your neighbours son allowed to kick the darn thing! Tell them to get lost, they're just trying it on and your dogs do what dogs do!