Romeo Next Door

I have never had good luck with neighbors and dogs. The neighbor's dog was either attacking my dog or the neighbor was attacking me about my dog. I remember one of the worst incidents on record was a situation where a neighbor accused my dog of torturing her two stray cats. She was shouting at me on my front porch in 100-degree Mississippi heat.

She was dressed in a tank top and short shorts with a black pair of cowboy boots and a black cowboy hat and believe it or not, a dip of snuff in the side of her mouth. Her cursing tirade went on for an hour, until I finally consented to have my dog euthanized and pay the $125 vet bill for the two tortured stray cats. I didn't do either one. I MOVED!

Just recently I had another "neighbor's dog" incident. I just love animals, and they know it. There have been times I have actually felt like Cinderella with all the animals as my only friends. But when I met Romeo, it was love at first sight. Romeo lives inside a fenced-in yard next door to my oldest daughter's new house. Every time I would go visit her, Romeo would stand at the fence and watch my every move - like a secret admirer. Then one day, he appeared at our front door. The neighbor's son picked him up and took him home; but the next morning, Romeo was right back on our front porch.

If I went inside, he would just sit and watch me through a front porch window. He was just so adorable. I mean, after all, his name IS Romeo. All day long, he sat at our house, until the neighbor's son came home from school. He would pick up Romeo and take him home, then the process started all over again the next morning.

One weekend, I went home to see my parents. When I got back on Monday morning, Romeo started scurrying around the fence in his yard, found his opening and came running up to my car. I had just petted him when I heard my neighbor. She grabbed Romeo and told me that he had never behaved like this before we moved in. She rebuked me harshly for encouraging him to get out of his fence. She accused me of feeding him, and then she asked me if I would please not pay any attention to him - at all. She said she would appreciate it if I would just ignore him. That day, the neighbors found his hole in the fence and they fixed it.

I was furious at first, but then I realized they were only concerned about Romeo's safety and the strict leash laws in the neighborhood. I hated not to look at him when he stood at the fence, but I knew I had to do it. Even though I ignored him completely, he never stopped watching me. To this day, he still sits at the fence and waits for me.

I thought about Shakespeare's Romeo, and I decided to write a story about my Romeo. I never write children's stories about myself, so I made my daughter, Aimee, the protagonist. And, of course, I had to have a happy-ever-after ending. Unfortunately for Romeo and me, that's not the real-life ending we got.

TODAY'S BIG STORY: I have met someone. His name is Romeo, and he is in love with me; however, he is not allowed to visit me. He is not allowed to sit on my lap, or chase me in the front yard or ride in the basket on my bike. We are separated by a chain link fence, and we are forbidden to be friends. So, he sits and watches me when I sweep the sidewalk, or water the ferns or get out of my car. I know he is watching me, but I cannot bear to look at him. I just pretend he is not there.

Romeo Next Door

Love at first sight – that's what Aimee said about her little white cottage on the bay. She found the cottage on a perfect summer day. She loved the cottage because it had two porches and two swings, a lush green garden and an agreeable stray cat. Aimee moved in and parked her bike with a basket next to one palm tree in her front yard.

She had only begun to settle in when she had her first visitor. The minute she opened the door and looked into his eyes, it was love at first sight – for the second time. She found out that his name was Romeo, and he lived next door. Every morning, he crawled through a hole in the fence to visit her. Aimee gave Romeo special treats during his visits and always held him her lap as they sat on the front porch swing.

When Aimee went inside during the day, Romeo sat on a comfy cushion in his favorite wicker chair and watched her through a porch window. When she came into view, he sat up on his hind legs and wagged his tail. When she walked to another room, he waited.

Every afternoon, Aimee and Romeo went for a ride on the beach. He sat in the basket on her bike and barked at birds. Then, at the end of every day, Aimee kissed Romeo good night, turned off the porch light and went inside her cottage. Romeo crawled back through the hole in the fence and slept inside a small shed until morning.

Until one morning, that is, on a perfect fall day...

Aimee opened her front door, and Romeo wasn't there. She looked around for him and found him on the other side of her neighbor's fence. The hole in the fence had been repaired, and Romeo could not get through to Aimee's side.

Aimee had always known that Romeo belonged to her next door neighbor, but no one had seemed to mind the time they spent together. Romeo looked at Aimee. He began to whimper and beg, and then he timidly crawled to the fence. He waited for her to reach across the fence and pick him up. But, she couldn’t. Even though she loved him and he loved her, he did not belong to her.

Aimee still loved her cottage. She painted rooms, planted flowers and changed decorations with the seasons, but she did not go near her neighbor’s fence. Romeo never left the fence. At times, he heard her voice and caught a glimpse of her. Romeo barked and howled; Aimee pretended not to hear.

Months passed, and the fence became overgrown with hedges. Still, Romeo found one spot in the bushes where he could see Aimee. Every morning and every night, she sat on the swing on her upstairs balcony. Romeo perched on his hind legs and watched her from his favorite spot. Aimee did not know that Romeo was watching her, and Romeo did not know that Aimee's next door neighbor was watching him.

Until one morning on a perfect Spring day...

Aimee heard a knock at the door. She opened the door and saw Romeo for the first time in months. Holding him was a man she had never met. He bashfully introduced himself as her next door neighbor. Romeo jumped into her arms and began licking her face!

“I want you to have Romeo,” her neighbor said. “He watches you every morning and every night through the hedges. He wants to spend his days with you. I do not want to make him choose between us, so I am giving him to you.”

“Why does he have to choose?” asked Aimee.

So on that perfect Spring day, Aimee and her next door neighbor cleaned a spot in the hedges. Together, they put up a gate for Romeo that is always open.

Dianne B. McLaurin. Copyright, 2010.

One of the most difficult lessons to learn as a child is to not want something that belongs to someone else. As adults, we have to teach that lesson, so that our children learn boundaries. Some adults never learn that lesson, and I had to re-learn it myself...even if the something I wanted was the companionship of a dog named Romeo, and the boundary was my neighbor's fence.

Dianne ; )