Yesterday, the dogs started barking ferociously (1 small lab mix, 2 golden retrievers) while I sat near an open window; my daughter was outside playing. They usually will bark at squirrels and hawks, but this was an intruder warning. I turned around to see a black pick-up in our yard. Notice, I didn't say in the driveway. They had actually pulled up into the grass covered area of the rarely used driveway beyond what is obviously the drive to the house. We have a long driveway, but it obviously leads to the house - with cars in the yard that say we're home.
I was thinking this might be some uninformed young hunters or fishermen who were looking to sneak through our property to the pond on the neighbor's behind us. We used to have a problem with that, but changed the road structure to confuse those who wouldn't take no for an answer (more private property trespassers).
I went out and yelled "hello" across the distance. Sitting in their truck, they yell something inaudible back, since the dogs were drowning them out. They didn't even bother to back-up and take the drive to the house where I was standing. I walked a bit closer to them, yelled at the dogs to shut up, scanned for my invisible daughter (whom I like to remain invisible when the rednecks with little brain visit).
Finally, one of them decided it might be easier to communicate if they stepped out of the pick-up and started to cross some of the 100 feet between us, which by now they knew I was not going to do for them. They were looking for free dogs that someone who was moving had. The free dog people had a 20 acre place they sold and were getting rid of their dogs. So, if there were free dogs they were looking for, from someone they didn't know, why did they PASS the house and head out onto the property?!!! Were they just thinking they would load up strange dogs and go? That doesn't sound like a safe option. Were they just going to drive up to the dogs' pen and load up my pooches?
Or were they testing to see if anyone was home, hoping to make a run for the barn and its obvious stockpile of pawnable items? They didn't look the type. They just looked like young men who didn't have a clue how to pull up a driveway, knock on a door and ask the obvious question, "Are you the people who have the dogs to give away?"
No, this isn't an isolated incident. Neighbors come looking for lost dogs, sit in the car and honk the horn. One actually sent her young son to the door. Other neighbors come asking if we'll sell them the "useless" land that has one of our 3 amazing springs and sit in the truck and honk their horn, after they've driven over the flower bed to get as close to the house as possible so they don't have to expend any energy. I've even had bounty hunters come sit in my driveway to watch a house across the road!!
Does anyone else find this behavior rude? Oh, and it isn't just the current location. The same would happen in the previous state where we lived. I had one brave soul sit at the end of the driveway there and honk their horn for me to come out so they could ask if the classic car that I had parked by the garage - not at the mouth of the driveway, or on the lawn - was for sale! So, it isn't unique to this area, it is just somehow unique to a segment of lazy individuals who think that you should go out of your way to answer their questions, or that it is okay to just drive around private property uninvited without checking at the house for answers to questions.
The audacity of it is just mind boggling! I don't want to have to put up rude signs - Trespassers Beware, Beware of Dog, No Trespassing, etc. But we did put up Private Property signs at the end of the driveways so that people wouldn't mistake them for public roads. But, I am really beginning to understand why I see so many of those rude signs out and about. Do you suppose the people they are directed at have even the tiniest clue? Probably not.
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