After a long, and upsetting battle with Leeds City Council,
I now have a dog boarding licence for this address.
I haven’t said anything about this until now as I wanted to
get it resolved first.
Basically, I have two separate garden areas (thee if you
include the driveway, four if you include the front garden!). One is on a busy
main road, the other (I have a corner property) is in a very quiet cul de sac.
When they came to inspect the house and garden they objected
to the first garden as there were some gaps in the hedge. I explained that dogs
would only be allowed into that part under constant supervision (absolutely
true by the way) , but this wasn’t good enough, so I said OK, then I won’t let dogs into it at all, as they could
use the other garden. They didn’t want to know. Instead they insisted I close
all the gaps in the hedge in case a dog from outside might come crashing
through (it would have to be a gymnast, all the gaps are at least three feet
up) ) or people might throw rubbish through into my garden which dogs might
eat.
I was told I couldn’t have a licence until the work had been
done. I felt bullied. I was upset that at no time, did the dogs’ care come into
it. I could hurt or shout at them, neglect and ignore them, or not play with
them or take them for walks and that’s all fine, so long as they don’t get
injured and the council gets sued. That’s what it was all about, the
possibility of them getting taken to court. The fact that I’ve cut down and
only have three clients, didn’t matter, nor did the fact that I planned to stop
at the end of the year.
The old me would have laid down and been walked over. The
new me wrote a letter, basically saying that they were bullies, that my second
garden was perfect for dogs, that I didn’t like being accused of lying (in that
they didn’t believe I would keep dogs out of the other part of the garden) and that
I felt they were bullying me. I pointed out that I suffer from depression, and
that I felt the story might be of interest to a magazine, or even TV.
Amazingly they had a change of heart. I now have a licence
so Louis can come and stay with me, legally. I had Pip to stay while this was
going on. To make sure I wasn’t prosecuted (yes, that’s what they threatened if
I boarded without a licence) I didn’t cash her owners’ cheque, and gave it back
to them.
I feel very relieved, both because I am now ‘legal’ again, but
mostly because I didn’t back down. I’ve had a problem with confrontation all my
life so this felt bigger than I can adequately explain. Sadly, I’ve had to cancel Raffy’s booking. I did that
as soon as this all blew up. He has to ‘go’ on grass, so I wouldn’t have been
able to keep him out of the ‘dangerous garden’. Of course, the licence doesn’t
say that only one part of the garden is OK so you have to wonder what all the
fuss was about.
I hate bullies, don’t you?