Dog-gone It

Fair warning, I am off on another rant.

I have had such problems with my neighbor's dogs running loose in the past, so much so that Animal Control is on speed dial.  Stray dogs do show up here now and then, but it's a one-time shot and they're gone.  When my neighbor's dogs get loose, my goats and chickens are simply too tempting for them to resist and up the hill they come.  When the Kids were here, I caught sight of two dogs racing across my driveway.  I made note of it but didn't think too much about it until a little later when Pete came rushing out the door, saying there were dogs at the chicken pen.  He chased them off and they went barreling down the hill to, you guessed it, my neighbor's yard.  Still thinking they might be strays, we watched to make sure the dogs didn't harass her livestock as they were at her horse stalls; I was going to give her a heads-up call if there was a problem.  But then she came strolling out and the dogs went to her.  Oh crum.

It had been such a long while since this has been an issue that I thought she had it all under control.  I'd love to let my chickens free range again, but there was always the worry that her pack would come back and kill them as they had in the past.  Yesterday Bessie frantically let me know we had unwanted critters on the property.  Bess is too old now to defend herself and if she runs too hard, her old legs pay the price afterward, so I left her yelling in the house and went out to check.  Son of a gun, there were the same two dogs harassing the chickens. 

The larger brown-and-white took off running, but the little black poodle-looking dog faced me down barking before finally going after the other.  My neighbor evidently saw me because only then she started yelling for the dogs.  She knew they were gone, and I knew she knew.

Doggone it, I don't want this to start up again.  I don't want to be on high alert.  I don't want to worry about Bessie Anne if she's outside and the dogs show up.  I don't want the goats or chickens panicked.  I don't want to call Animal Control.  I don't want to shoot the dogs, as Animal Control had advised in the past.  I don't want to get into another war with my neighbor.  I want peace on all fronts.