Hidely-ho Neighbour!
It’s always a gamble when you move into a new place – and so much more so when you’ve bought it. So the other day, when a kid called me and said they were my neighbour, I tried very hard to concentrate on what they were saying above the natural noise of two little girls in my kitchen – but I failed, and they hung up. Since it was a private number, I couldn’t even call back! Luckily they called me again two hours later. . . . but I still had two little ones with me. They asked if my fridge was running.
“Is my. . . fridge. . . running?” I asked.
“Yes. Is your fridge running?”
“Um. . . yes.”
“Then you’d better go and catch it!”
And thus endeth the call with my supposed neighbour. The last time I heard of prank calls being a thing I was the one making them. It made my day.
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One of our real neighbours has a dog. They do a great job of caring for it, and although it sometimes barks (one of our cats loves to sit in their tree) it definitely doesn’t bother us at all (actually I’m a little nervous they’ll be annoyed at our cat…). Another neighbour has a giant yard with a large garden/orchard at our end. It was from that yard that I was pretty sure I heard, “Maa-a-a-a-a-a-a!”
“Ah,” I thought. “Our neighbour has procured a sheep to crop their grass. How incredibly organic and awesome of them.”
I heard it a few more times during the week and sure enough, on Saturday I was walking down our back steps (the only place one can accidentally see into their yard) and I spotted it. I told CJ about it, and was excited about lifting Louisette up so she could see a REAL LIVE sheep after all the hundreds of pictures (too bad it’s not green, but you can’t have everything). I was torn between calling out to our awesome neighbours and keeping silent in the sure knowledge that they are cooler than us in so many ways.
A couple of hours later, CJ was playing with Louisette outside and our paths crossed briefly. “I don’t think you’ll be hearing that sheep any more,” he said. “On account of it being strung up in their tree.”
“Oh,” I said, and made a mental note not to glance in their direction next time I was on the steps.
“Don’t worry,” said CJ, “They haven’t skinned it yet.”
Yep. Our neighbours are definitely much, much cooler than us*.
*Well, cooler than me. CJ grew up on a sheep farm so he wins.
Felicity Banks 
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