Did I wake up one day in Hazzard County?

I know...Been awhile..

When I last wrote here, Rufus, our dog, had been at the vet's after being severely attacked by another dog. He spent a total of 8 days there. He's now back home, all stitches and staples have been removed, and he's about as good as new...Now on to the post.

When I worked in Cleveland, I was fond of saying that I was going home to civilization. This started after my car had been broken into and was within seconds of being stolen. The police were too busy to come to my work to take a report. I think they were working on a case...of donuts. I was told that my car could have been stolen just as easy in Rittman.

My further contempt for Cleveland's finest was cultivated when I got a ticket for a loud exhaust. Funny, there were cars traveling the streets in far worse shape than the car I was driving. And many of those had expired temporary tags on them.

The icing on the cake in C-town was when I was caught in a speed trap. I paid $190.00 for the privilege of going 12mph over the speed limit. The officer issuing me the ticket told me that this detail was set up by their "illustrious mayor." I guess they had to charge me as much as they did to pay the 5 officers assigned to that detail.

Since I lost my job in Cleveland, I've been inside of city limits 4 times in the past 20 months.

Don't get me wrong. I love living in Rittman. Been here for 28 years. Sometimes the good ole' boy form of government can be very annoying, but tolerable. But in the past few weeks, I have to wonder.

My sister was walking Rufus when he was attacked. She has had a seizure disorder for several years and her mental capabilities have diminished to the point over the years that she is now disabled because of them. We took her in when my mom passed away in 2004. When the police were called, my wife was told if we pursued this in court, it would probably get tossed out because of my sister's mentality. 

I later called the dog warden, who has been conducting their own investigation. The officer who took the report seemed upset that the dog warden was called, and that he had to answer the questions that he had already answered on his report. His big directive was to tell us that we needed to put a number on our house.

We also checked our weekly paper to see if the dog attack was mentioned in the police report. You know, the one that reports when a grandmother takes the grandchild's bike and hides it when the child misbehaves. Nothing was logged about a dog attack on Windswept. This week I read in the police blotter where they were called to 1st St. park because 2 boys were jumping on tables. A friend of mine also wrote a letter to the editor because police were called to issue his sister in law a warning because her grass was too high.

I guess I should sleep well since we are being kept safe from high grass and kids jumping on tables....