Ok, this is an emergency type thing. Well, an emotional rescue of some kind is needed, even if it's only typing it out and talking to someone...

I just had an important email that I had a nightmare about last night. The nightmare is real. I feel just stupid because I was doing well today. I posted about a couple of things, and then... BAM!!!

I don't care if I am breaking some kind of rule of theirs by talking about this. I need to talk about it. It's been driving my entire life for a year now.

Potted History

I lost a dog in November last year. I worked at that point for exactly twelve hours per week. I came home from a two hour job and a few minutes later he collapsed when he had gone out into the garden. He had cancer, but he had seemed a little better. The vet had put him on steroids. I called my mother at work, and sat in the mud comforting him for an hour and a half while I waitied for her to get back so we could lift him and take him inside together. We don't drive in our house, so we had to rig a couple of trolleys together and put a dog basket on them in order to get him to the vet. He was put to sleep immediately.

The next day, our other remaining dog was due in surgery to remove a growth on his nose, and he came out at the end of the day very woozy, on painkillers, with a lampshade on his head. I arranged to stay with him for the next two weeks until the stitches were removed as he was poorly, and he was suffering from the loss of his friend.

Six days later, two people called to our door at around 7pm from the council (social housing for you american kids) to tell us that a complaint had been made about our dogs barking and they left a copy of a tenancy agreement leaflet. We have been tenants of our council all of my life, which is thirty five years. At this address.

We were sure the complaint was malicious as our next door neighbour is just that kind of sadistic, and we assumed that was the end of it. He'd watched me sitting there in the mud with my dying dog, and obviously enjoyed it on some sick level. He'd probably watched us drag our home made trolley up the street as well. He also knows that it's around ten years since my Dad and brother committed suicide and I found them in our house.

Anyway, come February this year, we received a letter from the council about anti-social behaviour disorder, and we had to meet with a council officer. We did a few days later, and he claimed that he had heard the dog barking in November. He didn't tell us the date. We informed him of our circumstances, and said we were sure it was a malicious complaint. We were ignored, however he said he was to close the case as no further complaints had been received.

Three days later, I was walking home from my two hour job, when I saw him driving up our street. I was home as he got out of his car. He said he was there in response to a complaint. My dog was silent, as always. We've had many dogs over the years, and we've had noisier dogs, which just makes this all the more surreal.

He said he would observe. I went in, and my dog was quiet. Not a single bark. My mother called him, expecting the case to be closed as he had been unable to witness any noise, and he told her he had witnessed noise that day. Unbelievable.

I called the police about the malicious complaint. They said it was a disagreement between me and the council and was out of their hands.

I got a cctv camera. One day while I was out at my two hour job, I was able to witness one visitor to our house. It was the council officer. He left a card on our doorstep. Later, he claimed this was because he was scared of our dog biting his fingers. We have a letter catcher. Also, our dog is a miniature whippet/staffy cross who stands about 30cms tall.

Later, he changed the date of the day he had "witnessed" noise to the day when he left the card.

He issued us with a Caution for breach of tenancy, using a date in November just after my dog's operation, when I was home, and the date he left the card. The dates were more than three months apart.

He said he could evict us from our home of thirty five years without the need to prove anything by monitoring equipment as he had witnessed our dog barking.

For the next nine months, I could not leave the house to go anywhere or do anything unless my mother booked time off work to be at home with our dog. Our neighbour controlled my life because he had been watching for me going out, and calling the council. I work early now, between 4am and 7am so that I can be back before my mother goes to work. I have trouble working around appointments. My mother has given up working permanently on Fridays to help.

We had mediation. My neighbour has now agreed to talk to us before complaining again to the council.

We have taken our dog to training school, got him a new companion in the latter half of this year in the shape of a greyhound (a girl with long legs and a big chest ), bought him toys, stimulated him with training, got him a barking collar that he never sets off. Purchased a dictation machine that we can use if we ever start leaving him alone again.

We complained to our council, and were brushed aside. We complained to the Ombudsman, and now that too has been brushed aside. As part of the complaint process to the Ombudsman, the council officer involved has admitted that the first date on the Caution he witnessed noise for two minutes. He also said that on the day he left the card he and a colleague knocked on our door first. I supplied the Ombudsman with our cctv of that day. It doesn't make any difference apparently.

Neither does it matter that my mother's testimony contradicts that of the council officer. His is the testimony that the Ombudsman pays attention to. Nor does it matter that we submitted several other letters in our defence from other neighbours saying that they did not hear our dog barking or find him a nuisance.

I just called my CPN. I didn't know what else to do. He said there must be some right of appeal or something, but it doesn't say that on the letter. I dreamed about this. I dreamed of it.

I'm sorry. I thought this would all come out differently. I thought that at some point, someone would have to see it. They'd have to see it. I'm just so lost. I'm in a kind of horrible prison made by my neighbour and I just can't get out of it. I can't abandon my dog. If I can abandon my dog, I can abandon everything else. It's out of the question.

I'm really, truly, honestly stuck here... and so incredibly stressed. I can't believe this can really happen.