Princess,
I had a neighbor whose dogs barked constantly in the middle of the night. I gritted my teeth through the first episode. The second time I called him (1:30 a.m.) and let the phone ring until he answered it. I was nice and said, "Hey, could you get your dogs to quiet down? They're waking me up." Three days later, the same thing. I called him, was nice, "Your dogs are barking again." Again, apologies, dogs put in house. A few days later, it happened again. This time I yelled at him. I cursed him. Did no good. It kept happening. I kept up my barrage of calls.
Finally I considered my options. I searched the internet to see what other people did. My options were:
1. Poison the dogs. Quite easy but a painful slow death for the animal. I love dogs. I was pissed at the owner, not the dogs. I was surprised how many people on the Net advocated this method and claimed to have used it.
2. Call the cops every time. There are laws about this thing and they issue tickets.
3. Sue him.
The next time the dogs woke me up in the middle of the night I told him, "That's it. You are a terrible neighbor. You don't care. You are going to force me to sue you. You are going to hear from my lawyer, you jerk." (G rated version) I then called the cops on him and every time thereafter the dogs began their middle-of-the-night barking.
Tickets are expensive for this, $100 plus, and after he got one he woke up. He got shock collars which shock the dogs when they bark. It worked. He did apologize in person. I told him all I wanted was a good night's sleep, that it wasn't personal. (That was a lie. By then it was personal but I was trying to keep it neighborly) Six months later he moved. Happy day for me.
I guess the moral of the story is consider all your options and use every legal means of rectifying the situation. But make sure you talk to *the pastor* every time the church does something. Only talk to the top guy. Be nice at first. Be nice the next two or three times. Then consider what legal "big stick" you can use and be relentless.
