Neighbors, Shneighbors...

We have this one neighbor that we can not get along with at all and in my opinion, it escalated tonight. It all stems back about 3 years. Our kids all got along great and everything was fine and dandy. Then one fine summer day, their cow dog got loose and was in our backyard and Ethan was back there and tried to get him out. Well, this dog bit him in the crotch. When I realized something was going on, Ethan was laying in the back yard, screaming, and this dog had him cornered and baring it's teeth, and then it turned on me and tried to lunge at me. I told the neighbor boy to get his dog now or I was going to kill it. Long story short... the police came, took the dog and exterminated it to rule out rabies. And that was about it. Until this neighbor gets another cow dog and a beagle. Now the new cow dog, not a bad dog. The beagle... that is another story. I have to digress a moment though... because that's the part that make the story even crazier. A little history: #1- The neighbor is on the sex offender list and I kind of think that he thinks we are picking on him for this reason... not true. #2- 2 summers ago we were at a family reunion and in walk our "dog neighbors." Wow... we're related... great! To think we thought about sueing them over the dog bite! So to continue... This stinkin' beagle will be the death of Rob. It doesn't bother me so much. But it howls ALL the TIME and it gets out quite often and we catch it in the back yard. One time it cornered Berlyn on the front porch and howled at her to the point she peed her pants. She was barely 3. Rob talked to the shneighbor about it, and all he said was that the beagle wouldn't hurt a flea. Tell that to a 3 year old. I would say that Rob goes over once a day and says, "Uhhh... your dog's howling." And he always says he knows but doesn't do a thing about it. So this morning, I have to take Ethan to the church for a tubing outing and I see the shneighbor man and his 3 kids standing out at the side walk, just standing there. And as I leave the subdivision, there is that beagle at the front house... digging up a flower bed. I made a comment to Ethan that I wasn't going to tell his dad because it would just make him mad. I drop him off, come home and the dog is across the street on the sidewalk across from our house. I just ignore the dog, always. I don't really care about it. But I can hear the dog following me, the oldest son is chasing the dog and shneighbor is telling his son to get the dog. The dog followed me all the way to the door. Many hours later I caved and told Rob... just because the dog came up in conversation. This evening, once again, the dog was howling. And of course Rob had to do his whole, "Uhhh... your dog's howling" routine. And then he relayed the morning events to the shneighbor and he said it wasn't his dog, he wasn't home all day. Another long story short, he told Rob I was lying......... yeah, now I'm mad. And he told Rob that the dog howls all the time because my kids knock on the fence on the way home from school. #1- Shneighbor is not home at that time. #2- Ethan? maybe. The girls? no! Ethan rides the bus home. #3- It's Christmas break! Explain that one, shneighbor! #4- Do my girls now walk home from school at 9p.m. when the dog does most of it's howling?? Anyhow, I was going to stay out of this but this guy just threw down the gauntlet. Call me a liar...