Did you hear that loud yelling at around 4:00 pm this afternoon? That was me yelling at the idiot trespassers who brought their untrained, undisciplined, unleashed dog onto the airport, and then down past the gates to our house, had it in our driveway terrifying our children, thrashing through our yard to attack our chickens, and then had the nerve to act like somehow we were out of line to be so angry with them.

Here's a clue, if you have to go through two gates on private property that is governed by the FAA and pass by four signs that say authorized personnel only and no trespassing, and you don't know why, well the chances are you shouldn't be there. By the way, aside from it being trespassing, it is also a federal offense, you can be prosecuted on the local level as well as the federal level for it. Just a warning in case you think your local airfield would make a good dog walking park, and try to do it without talking to the owners or managers first.

Some self entitled, dog walking, too much money and not enough sense, belligerent, trespassing jackasses thought that because they had not been caught and told to leave before, that it was okay to ignore the signs, gates and common sense that would keep them from taking their dog for a walk on an airport by the runway and ILS equipment. The man never even acknowledged that he had to ignore all the signs, insisting that it had always been okay before. By okay, evidently he and his wife thought that meant because nobody had ever seen them or confronted them about it. A teacher of mine in high school coined the phrase stupid aggressive for people who were too dumb to shut up about their own stupidity. This man and his wife were the mascots for stupid aggressive. As bad as the whole experience would have been, if they had admitted their fault, said sorry and put the dog on a freaking leash and left, it would have been a much better thing.

The wife actually said they weren't in the habit of sneaking around, as though that made the trespassing okay. Part of me wants to get their address and go have a picnic in their yard and if they tell me to leave, to demand that they identify themselves before I even start to move (which the husband did, while standing in our driveway which also has a no trespassing sign up, where we had just driven in with our children and started unloading everyone and everything from our car to get in our house).

Rich asked them if they had an airplane out here (which he knew they didn't), a pilot's license, or a business, or any reason at all to be on the field. No, but you see, they should be able to just walk on, because the gates were open so business could take place here. Just like we should be able to walk around your house, and rearrange your furniture, grab some food from your fridge and borrow some of your things, since the front door was open.

I lit into these people. Rich said the husband made some sort of snarky parting shot at him about being hen pecked, I think he thought he was being clever because of the chickens, because I had gone into mama bear mode, and Rich said he just walked away. He told me that that man didn't know how lucky he was that Rich was there to hold me back. Elijah and Amira were in tears and screaming, Alexander and Dominic were busy trying to get the house unlocked so they could get in with Amira, and Elijah was huddled in the car, terrified to get out (we had just gotten home from church and running some errands). Elijah is already half out of his mind with fear about dogs, and there is really only one dog he can be around without crying, because he's had so many bad experiences with scary dogs. I told the kids that if I saw this dog near our home again, I would kill it. I think the owner knows that, too. I'm not going to let these self entitled, bad dog owners destroy our yard, scare our animals and terrorize our children. I don't think we'll get any eggs tomorrow, and it's only because none of the chickens were in the section of the yard where the dog ran through that the dog didn't tear them up, he literally stalked them and ran through to where he thought he could get them. Dog people do not understand what dogs can do to chickens. Wolves and coyotes kill them, but they do it to eat them, dogs thrash them and leave them in bits without even eating them. It is bloody, ugly, painful and terrifying. I'm still not sure that we won't lose one or two to fright. He could have gotten into the beehives, too, but Rich threw a couple big rocks at him to get him away. That would have been our honey gone, and our hives decimated, though I would have had great satisfaction in the dog getting stung.

We reminded Elijah and the other children about our neighbors' nice dog, who they love, and how he listens and obeys every command that his family gives him, which is why we can feel safe when he comes up here because he would never go to get our chickens, or to hurt them, and if he went somewhere he wasn't supposed to, he would immediately stop and return to his owners on their command. I don't know that Elijah is going to get over his general fear of dogs, though. He's had five really frightening experiences, aside from the normal loud barking that freaks him out, and it's going to take a lot of work and prayer for him to be delivered from that. These assinine dog owners do not help.

The couple went to complain about Rich to another couple that (legitimately) walk their dog on the perimeter road here (and who stay out of the gate where these people went, even though they actually know us and are friends with Rich). Since Rich did a fair amount of shouting, too (and Rich never yells, I am the designated yeller in the family, it comes from my mother's side), the guy was going on about what a jerk he was. These people basically told him that Rich was pretty even tempered and if he was this riled up, it was about something serious. He then explained how he and his wife had a plane here, and they didn't go out of bounds, and politely told them that they didn't belong. When Rich talked to them, they knew exactly why we were so upset, I'm surprised they didn't hear all the yelling, actually. The wife said that they were stupid to mess with a mother protecting her home and family, because I wasn't a mama black bear, but a mama grizzly bear, and she was dead on.

You have to understand also that they came over from a nearby gated community which was built at least 25 or 30 years after the airport was here, where they hate the airport, but spent about a half million dollars for the privilege of complaining about the aircraft that fly in and out of the airport. Here's another clue, if you don't like aircraft flying over your house, or the noise from it, then don't move across the street from an airport. We don't want to live near a prison or a dump, and guess what, we didn't look at any places that were near those. There are fewer than five houses in our immediate area that were here before the airport was. One of them is the one we live in, which is now part of the field. Rich has to be polite to them, because of his job, but the calls he gets complaining are insane. Some of them get referred to the FBI, because they threaten to shoot aircraft out of the sky, or do something to the instruments here. So, these people come from this neighborhood, hate the airport, but evidently think that they have a right to just march on wherever they wish and do whatever they want. There are so many levels of stupidity here, I cannot even imagine. Trespassing in the first place, ignoring the signs (four of them!), having the dog off the leash, not training it in the least, not caring about the animals or children that were being endangered and frightened by their trespassing and irresponsible dog care, being general jackasses instead of being apologetic and getting out as soon as they could, insisting all the way that they were in the right, and had we just been nicer that everything would have been dandy. He's lucky my children were there to see my actions, because I was ready to take a shovel to his dog and then to him.

Rich finally asked him if he was illiterate since they had to walk past four signs that said they weren't allowed where they were to get to our house, and he just threw back, no are you? My first thought, and thank God I stifled it, was Oh, so you're not just ugly, you're stupid, too. Not exactly charitable, but neither was the intention of my heart toward these people. I have a lot to confess tonight. You don't mess with my home, my animals, and especially my children.

I haven't been this angry in a long time. Rich and I were still a bit jittery when our priest and his family came over for dinner. We're trying to think of what kind of large, brightly colored signs we can put up that clarifies exactly who can't be here. Yes, even you, and your little dog too, even if you want to pick blackberries, because you see they grow wild all over about a 1000 square mile area here, and there are plenty of places that aren't privately owned, or federally regulated where you can get them, and no just because you didn't get in trouble last time it doesn't make it okay, liking airplanes does not make you an authorized personnel, and if you don't have a pilot's license, legitimate business here, an airport vest, escort or express permission to be here, don't, oh and by the way, that includes you, too. Even the people who are allowed on the field, because they have businesses, hangars, or planes here are not allowed past the gate these people went through without permission and proper lights on vehicles or vests that identify them as airport people and which are clearly visible to the aircraft from the air and runway.

I know I don't normally post about the airport or the neighbors, but I am still so angry about this. This is the first time I've ever been interested in buying a gun and learning how to shoot. Rich knows how to use a gun, take it apart, clean it, shoot it, etc, from the military, but he and I have always been in agreement that while we support the right of a law abiding citizen to have a gun, neither of us wanted one in our home. Rich wants to start hunting and fishing, but he wants to bow hunt, so it wouldn't be an issue there, though I used to be pretty good at archery, so I could just shoot an arrow at dogs and itinerant criminals who pass through our yard. If you start hearing about dogs near airports disappearing, you will understand.

Labels: Family