Karen refuses to leash her reactive terrier after threatening animal control on her neighbor with 2 well-behaved dogs, gets put in her place and almost loses her apartment: ‘I was livid’

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Dec 12, 2024 1:00 PM EST

When you get a new neighbor, you hope that it is like those old '50s housewife films and it's a beautiful celebration and you become besties. You exchanged recipes, always greet each other after a hard day's work and maybe share a beer or two together in the garage. You two know all the tea of the neighborhood and you feel safe knowing they're living next to you. That is the ideal situation you hope for when you get a new neighbor. Unfortunately, sometimes you get the opposite… Sometimes you get a Karen neighbor. Oh boy, we are so sorry. That really is no fun to live next to. How do you even work with that? A Karen neighbor is a neighbor who is entitled, disregards anything that has to do with comforts for your living situation and, in fact, will go the extra mile to make your experience living next door to them as frustrating as possible. Luckily, there are still ways you can put a Karen neighbor in their place. 

Take this Karen neighbor that this woman came to Reddit to vent about. She has a terrier who terrorizes the neighborhood, including her own dogs. Her two fur babies are well-behaved. They're not service animal trained, but they have never caused anyone any problem, humans and dogs included. This terrier however does not like them and constantly barks and growls at them. They also bark, growl, and sometimes even charge at humans. So when the Karen neighbored threatened to call animal control on the 2 well-behaved dogs, you best believe that dog mom put her in her place. See how it went down below! 

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  • 01
    "We told her we're sympathetic to her troubles, but the dog needs to be under control."
    via Unsplash+ (and Kamila Wk)

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    We've started recording my neighbor's antics and she's not happy Almost a year ago we (me 47F and my daughter 18F) were "gifted" with a new neighbor just before Christmas. There are two duplexes at our address and we live in the first unit, so when our curtains are open, we see our neighbors coming and going. It's been pretty peaceful and we've all gotten along just fine in the almost four years that we have lived here.
    via 77whittywoman
  • 03
    Now, the new neighbor - we'll call her Vicki, I'm guessing 60ish. She moved into the other half of our duplex just before Christmas. I remember this specifically, as we had made Christmas puppy chow (a common Midwest sweet treat) and brought her some as a welcome gift. We met her little terrier, who was skittish, but we didn't think too much of this. Vicki was not good communicator - she mumbles and it is very hard to understand her, but we hoped to start on a friendly note.
    via 77whittywoman
  • 04
    We adore animals. We have two dogs and a cat, feed another neighbor's cat who is always left outside, and we feed the birds... Our previous neighbors had two dogs that our dogs loved to interact with through the fence - giving each other kisses and nuzzles. We hoped this dog would be their new bestie. This was quickly proven to be not the case. The first time our dogs met through the fence, her dog reacted to ours by viciously snarling through the fence.
    via 77whittywoman
  • 05
    Now we thought they'd probably warm up to each other. He may have been intimated and scared in his new home. My dogs are a little bigger than her terrier (not huge dogs by any means our bigger dog is knee height). - The backyard woes were enough to deal with but then we start to see a pattern of this dog running loose in the front courtyard. Once a while is one thing, but this is actually a daily occurrence. She has no control of him and it is actually pretty comical
    via 77whittywoman
  • 06
    watch her trying to catch him. At first, we tried to be understanding, but it became so frequent that I asked her to please keep him on a leash as I'm afraid of running him over (he runs right into our parking area and into the street). She mumbled incoherently, but I did make out that she claimed he chews through his leashes. Unfortunately, nothing changed after this exchange. This has continued, and escalated.
    via 77whittywoman
  • 07
    He has come at my daughter and I when we didn't have our dogs with us. My daughter also witnessed him charge another neighbor's elderly mother, who was so startled she picked up a stick to scare him off. We walk our dogs daily and if he happens to be outside, he will run at them aggressively.
    via 77whittywoman
  • 08
    Next, we bought a chain leash and put it in a little gift bag, with treats and a note, asking her to please be careful with him for his safety and ours. We continued to have the aggression through the fence, and it was almost impossible to simply let our dogs out, as she leaves her back door open, allowing him to run in and out when he chooses. We never leave our dogs out for extended periods - just long enough to relieve themselves between walks. I have to
    via 77whittywoman
  • 09
    point out I have never seen my dogs start these quarrels - they run out into the yard to do their business, then the little terror runs up and initiates the brawl. Now, this is when it really got tense. About two weeks ago, our dogs were having one of their skirmishes through the fence. I was trying to pull my dogs back in (of course they are reacting to him - jumping and barking as dogs will do), when a guest of hers while watching this little terror and not intervening, said quite loudly back
    via 77whittywoman
  • 10
    into the house, "you should call animal control!" I responded, though I knew she was not speaking to me, "oh, you want me to call animal control? I will call animal control!" I was livid. My daughter got very upset about the entire situation, worrying they would take/blame our dogs ( anxiety is a I). I was really trying to be courteous to Vicki up until this point (truth be told, my daughter was reigning in my inner Karen) but this was the last straw.
    via 77whittywoman
  • 11
    Once my daughter calmed down and realized we are definitely not in the wrong here, we made a plan to start recording each and every one of these incidents. We literally have dozens of recordings of this little monster running off leash. In some of these, she is nowhere to be seen. In almost every one of them, our dogs. calmly watch their antics, sometimes barking back when he barks and jumps at our window. There is also a video of him coming at us we are trying to take them for a walk - again of
    via 77whittywoman
  • 12
    apologized for his bad behavior. Today, he was off leash once again and my daughter was recording. This time, she realized she was being recorded. She grumbled something about it through the window but it was incomprehensible. She then knocked on the door to confront my daughter about recording her. My daughter confirmed she was indeed. recording and explained why. Vicki
    via 77whittywoman
  • 13
    mumbled and made some excuses about how hard her life is because she is caring for her disabled sister and elderly mother and asked my daughter not to call animal control (she never said she was going to). My daughter reminded her we have simply asked for her to keep her dog on a leash or in a kennel to avoid him running around unleashed.
    via 77whittywoman
  • 14
    We did not and do not want to call animal control. We are recording her and her dog to defend our dogs. We didn't even consider doing this until the threat was made was to call animal control on our dogs. Of course, she didn't make the threat, but she also did not negate it or apologize for it. We are often outside, so she has had ample opportunity to address it, without even needing to come to our door.
    via 77whittywoman
  • 15
    Update! Thank you for the interest and suggestions! We are definitely considering our options. Today's update: Vicki's dog was running free again today, so I was recording and she got MAD. She was talking through the window and as usual, I could not understand her. However, her gestures spoke for her and I was done with her crop. On the back of her confronting my daughter the other day, she was going to talk to me today.
    via 77whittywoman
  • 16
    I opened the door and she turned around and came to my porch stating I would see what would happen if I got her dog taken away. Omg, I was absolutely furious when she said this. I responded with, "oh really?!" I'm 47, and never been in a fight in my life, but I was ready to square up. Oddly, she changed her tune really quick, going back to the previous excuses about everything she's going through and the dog is all she has. I told her those are not my problems and all I have asked is that she ke
    via 77whittywoman
  • 17
    She was a broken record, insisting she was trying her best, so I pointed out that this is happening every day. Now my daughter and her daughter (visiting) joined the rather lively discussion. Vicki continued bouncing between half assed apologetic excuses and begging us not to call animal control.
    via 77whittywoman
  • 18
    Now Vicki's daughter, we'll call her Ashley, 30s I would guess, decided to really get into the mix. As I said, she is visiting, so she has not participated in any of our previous interactions. She spouted off about our dogs jumping and barking through the fence, to which my daughter replied that jumping and barking in their yard is not illegal. Ashley claimed our bigger dog was going to jump over the fence (even in his best leaps, he barely touches the top of the fence).
    via 77whittywoman
  • 19
    In the four years we've been here, he never has - he displays barrier aggression by barking and jumping in the backyard. This is literally the most aggressive he ever gets - while on leash for walks, he avoids other people and dogs - never barks or lunges. He's actually very timid. Then Ashley claimed it wasn't illegal for the dog to be off-leash. My daughter scoffed and said, "um, yeah, it is." Ashley's response: "f the law." Ashley then decided to taunt us for being scared of Vicki's dog.
    via 77whittywoman
  • 20
    She was completely ignorant and ridiculous. At one point, she even tried to claim that we must not be dog people (because wanting to be safe from this dog and also keep the dog safe means we hate animals). She is obviously not the sharpest tool in the shed. We were talking in circles, with Ashley becoming more aggressive, then my daughter piped up and said, "all right, we're just going to call the landlord and animal control." I don't think they
    via 77whittywoman
  • 21
    had even considered that we might involve the landlord. Vicki has been so concerned about animal control, I don't think she considered the impact this conflict could have on her housing. For a little further background, Vicki ghosted our landlord when she got behind on her rent a short time back and almost got evicted. We posted the notice as our landlord is not local.
    via 77whittywoman
  • 22
    Interestingly, at this point, Vicki and Ashley calmed down quite a bit. Ashley asked her mom about whether we have talked to her about this and Vicki admitted we had and even told Ashley that we gave her a leash. Looking back and considering their sudden change of tone, I wonder if the landlord even knows about the dog. Now Vicki was claiming she just wants everyone to get along. I said "I just want you to keep your dog on a leash." Then again with the excuses...
    via 77whittywoman
  • 23
    Vicki admitted this is her first dog and "trying" to train him, so we gave her some suggestions to control her dog... like crating him or putting a baby gate in front of her front door to keep the dog in when she opens it. I told her about a thrift store in our area that has a lot of very reasonably priced pet supplies (and the proceeds go to the local humane society). We told her we're sympathetic to her troubles, but the dog needs to be under control.
    via 77whittywoman

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