My family and I have lived in St. Albert for just a little over four years. We are from B.C. and I have to say, the few residents we have encountered have been extremely rude and obnoxious. It seems no one knows how to start a conversation without attacking you.
From rude notes on our door about our dog barking at 6 a.m on a weekday, (I do not let them bark, I let them out before work and if they bark, I bring them in right away) to a neighbour stopping the car to scream and yell at my husband for shovelling snow into the road (which is where the bylaws state you are to put it!). And the most recent, a neighbour thinks we are abusing our retriever, who by the way, loves the cold and snow. The neighbour has threatened to call the police on us if she sees him one more time on our deck.
Now, if she cared to Google retrievers and the cold, she would soon learn, they love it. He was not distressed, he scratched the door to be let in and unfortunately I did not hear it as I was vacuuming and then forgot he was out. He was not outside for hours on end and within an hour of me letting him in, after the neighbour showed up to chew me out, he wanted out again!
What I’d like to say is, there’s a way to speak to your neighbours without attacking them. We aren’t abusive pet owners, we’ve never been reported, our pets are well treated and never in our 28 years of marriage and raising three children, have we ever met such unruly, obnoxious and rude people as we have met here in St. Albert.
To my immediate neighbours on either side of our home, I’d like to say have been very kind and lovely. The others, well, they need a lesson or two in how to communicate efficiently, without attacking. You win more bees with honey than you do with vinegar! I’m just saying!
Darlene Jeannotte, St. Albert
