How Man Got 'Revenge' on Neighbor for Ruining Dying Dog's Last Day Cheered

A dog owner has been applauded for exacting "brilliant revenge" on the neighbors whose actions prevented him from enjoying a special final day with his dying pit bull.

Writing in a post shared to Reddit, a user with the screen name u/valdev recalled how, a few months ago, he was forced to make the "painful decision" to have his elderly dog, who was fighting cancer, put down.

The death of a dog can have a huge impact on our overall well being. In a 2015 study published in the scientific journal PLoS One, researchers had 110 dog owners and 103 bereaved dog owners, who had lost their canines due to euthanasia, complete a questionnaire to assess their overall quality of life in terms of physical, psychological, relationship and environmental factors.

They found that stress levels were significantly higher in bereaved owners and that their quality of life was impacted in three of the four factors (physical, psychological and relationship).

In this instance, the dog owner had hoped to mitigate some of their grief by organizing a special day to say goodbye to their beloved pet. "One of the only things we wanted to give her was one last day outside in the backyard," he wrote.

The day before she was due to be euthanized, he set up a tent in the backyard and "filled it inside and outside with things our dog absolutely loved." Yet, as he was setting it up, he noticed one of his neighbors "placing sticks and leaves in their fire pit."

"Normally, I wouldn't care at all, but the poor dog is having trouble breathing," he explained. Figuring that it "wouldn't be an imposition," he decided to let them know the situation with his pit bull and asked that they postpone their burning for the day.

Initially, his neighbor's wife told him they would only be burning "a few things" and it "won't last very long at all." However, a few hours later he said they were "still outside adding more things to the fire." A few hours after that the fire was still "raging" and "actual campfire logs" were being added.

At this point he wasn't angry "just very sad" that his dog wasn't going to have the special day he had wanted to give her. "We would take her somewhere else, but don't want to stress her, so we spend the rest of the day inside," he wrote.

But rather than react with anger, he decided to exact a different kind of revenge by "looking into state laws, city laws and everything in between" on fire pits.

"From this I find out that my city has an ordinance that clearly states a fire pit cannot be within 50 ft of a structure," he wrote. That was when he came up with the perfect way to send a message: by spending $15,000 on a fence to separate his yard from theirs.

"The fence will be installed within the next couple weeks around the edge of my property, and their fire pit is no further away than 10 feet from my fence," he wrote. "Can't take a single day away from your fire pit for a dying dog? Well, enjoy never using it ever again."

Reflecting on the man's actions, Jennifer Kowalski, a licensed professional counselor at Thriveworks, a nationwide provider of in-person and online therapy services, told Newsweek: "It would be nice if we could choose the people who live in our neighborhood, not just the home we live in."

"People take on a 'this is my property' attitude and give little thought to how their actions impact others," she said. "The man who asks his neighbor to kindly stop burning sticks doesn't have a problem with the neighbor's fire but is specifically asking for this one time as he wants to spend his dog's last day in the backyard. The neighbor says they are almost done, but then passive-aggressively makes the fire bigger. His actions make it clear that he doesn't care to honor his neighbor's wishes, but more than that he is destroying what could have made a terrible day a bit better for his neighbor."

Kowalski concluded: "Is paying $15,000 for a fence to get even a bit extreme? Sure, but fences do make good neighbors, and it was the fire burner's actions that set the tone for the relationship moving forward."

That sentiment was largely echoed by those commenting on Reddit.

"Brilliant revenge," one wrote. "Every time you go out in your newly private yard and breathe fresh air, think of your pup." A second commented: "Screw your selfish neighbors for not giving you one day, I hope they enjoy never having a fire pit again." A third, meanwhile, added: "Some people are so inconsiderate, I'm sorry for your loss. Even though she didn't get her last great day I bet she had a lifetime of them."

Newsweek has contacted u/valdev for comment via Reddit.

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