Lollipop

It is driving my dogs (and me and no doubt my neighbours) bonkers. The dogs are barking and digging at the deck trying to get at it. Unfortunately it is in the far corner and cannot be seen or reached. I assume it is a fox as it has been there two days. Just hope it is not a vixen who plans to have her babies there! Does anyone know the best way to persuade a fox that this is not a good place to live?

In Belvoir Road, it is slow as treacle and I am having to reboot my router every half hour. Trying to call them but there is a 10 min wait to get through. Anyone have an update on when it might be fixed. Managed to log onto the web site where they gleefully annonced I was due a 'super fast upgrade'. I'd settle for an existng service. might take to twitter to complain....

I have a neighbour who is blind and I think he would find that sort of obstruction rather difficult! We are not all able bodied...

James can confirm but I believe the council scans the animal to see if it has a microchip and would try to inform the owner. I know that because I lost a cat some time ago. He turned up in Herne Hill - and we were reunited because he was chipped! In the meantime I called the council and every animal rescue I could think of to find out if he had been hurt.

Supply not as strong as it used to be but I have water too!

No water chez Belvoir - the trickle has now gone completely!

I'm now feeling quite fortunate. I have a small trickle of water in Belvoir Road. Not enough to shower or do a wash but at least i can get a glass of water!

Thanks Chunksmum. Have PM'd you re all your useful suggestions. And thanks feedingsquirrels - Amazon should be delivering a Petcam with two way audio very soon! I hadn't thought of that and it is a fab idea. There will be someone here all day for the next two weeks (painting house) and my son returns from a year away very soon as well. That should also help with keeping them amused and quiet. Meanwhile I will work my way around all the potential neighbours affected to apologise and try to make peace with whoever I have angered to such extremes.

Thanks everyone. To answer all the points 1. Have discussed with my immediate neighbours (who I get on with very well) They confirmed dog had been barking but hadn't thought to bother me about it. Apparently it starts about 3-4pm? I work so it is a bit strange that it is so late in the day - separation issues normally kick in as you leave them not after they have been alone for a few hours. 2. The last couple of weeks there have been builders repairing a flat roof on another neighbour's house which is right on my boundary. That may have triggered some barking as the work is a bit noisy (but obviously essential). 3. I have put an anti-bark collar on her yesterday in fact, but she took it off somehow. It is on again today - a bit tighter! it sprays her with citronella when she barks. I'm hoping that will work. 4. I am booking a dog behaviourist ( the guy from the Dog Borstal show, in case you want to know). I am hoping that the person who wrote the note was just having a meltdown and doesn't really intend to poison them. And that he/she will give me time to put things right. 5. I do have a dog walker twice a week - but they came yesterday and she obviously was barking all the same. 6. I also have a dog flap so the dogs can go out into the garden during the day. I think she must be barking outside from what the neighbours have told me. Catwoman - great suggestion. I will take a look at the site. I live in Belvoir Road/Underhill/Melford Road area - I too was worried they might carry out their threat and kill a cat instead...

I did Report it, not to be vindictive but to make sure if dogs/cats in the area are poisoned they know and *might* investigate. If anyone else has similar threats I would urge them to report it. Police were quite shocked at tone of note and fact that no one had been bothered to approach me in a 'more neighbourly way'.

Who knows if they have access or not. It is easy to threaten but those at the receiving end (me in this case) can't judge how serious it is. Which creates a climate of fear. And I think that is so wrong.

I was just about to add that. It is the unwillingness to approach me about the problem and the issuing of a threat instead that is unsettling. Thanks Tomskip

I take your point, but many of the people on this forum (including me) do not use their real names...I thought starting a conversation might help. Quite frankly, I am a bit scared by the tone of the note and reaching out and getting a response would make me feel slightly better.

of course. i think a conversation is a much more civilised way of dealing with this rather than threats. I have spoken with my immediate neighbours who hadn't told me there was a problem, but now say there is barking from about 3-4pm until 6. I understand how irritating that can be but I didn't know. No one wants anonymous threats posted through their door - I had an attempted break-in only recently and it is quite scary to feel that this neighbourhood - which I have lived in for many years- is becoming so threatening and unfriendly.

Firstly I apologise that their barking has disturbed you. I was not aware they were barking a lot and I think a more neighbourly way of approaching this would have been to tell me before you threaten to put poison in my garden to kill them. I am quite shaken at the violence of the note and have informed the police. I would ask that if you read this, please PM me. Of course I do not want my dogs bothering anyone and now that this has been brought to my attention I will try to ensure it does not happen in future.

I spent yesterday evening with the local police and the scene of crime officer, following an attempted break-in to my house. The police were very clear - burglar alarms are a deterrent to opportunistic burglars. I am afraid I am considering getting one though I have resisted for years due to the fact I have dogs. I always assumed that burglars would prefer not to test their friendliness. However, yesterday they waited until I took the dogs out and tried to break in. I do feel slightly nervous now - I am sitting at work wondering whether they have come back again. For peace of mind I may succumb! But you are correct - with most insurance companies it will make little difference to your quote

I have two dogs which I walk daily in either Dulwich or Peckham Park. I like to think I am a responsible dog owner. This morning in Dulwich Park my dogs were 'bothered' by a energetic husky whose owner had walked off talking on the phone. What began as play became body butting my puppy into the bushes (at this point, she was scared and trying to escape). The man was too far away to hear me call him and completely oblivious to his dog's behaviour. Luckily someone stopped to help me and got the owner back (by the way, in all the chaos I didn't get a chance to say thanks!). While I was trying to deal with that, two women walked past with three dogs. They were so busy chatting they failed to notice one of their dogs do a poo in full view. I have owned dogs for more than 20 years and I do feel let down by episodes like this. If I let mine off the lead (which I do), I accept I am responsible for their behaviour. I do wish other dog owners would do the same.

That is interesting about letting your child poo - Dulwich Park has a lot of human poo in the bushes near the playground and those near the cafe. I know because my dogs have a rather unfortunate habit of eating human poo. I have seen it - with nappies and wipes. Just as they were consuming it... I accept that there should be dog free areas - I have both dogs and children. It's frustrating, as a responsible dog owner who has picked up dog poo for more than 20 years, that some dog owners feel they do not need to do it. It spoils it for both other dog owners and families with young children who are quite rightly concerned about the risk.

I also live in Belvoir Road and am somewhat of an expert on the sewer having had drainage problems in the past. It runs down our back gardens as far as the single storey house that is at the bottom of No 5's garden (actually accessed from Underhill Road) - where it terminates inside the house in the bathroom. There were people there on the weekend trying to unblock something - I haven't had a problem so far, and assumed it was confined to that property. Thames Water may not have a record of this - control passed to Southwark Council at one stage which is when planning permission was given to build an extension on top of the access to the street sewer.

Is anyone else having problems with Freeview reception since those very windy days? I no longer get ITV, Channel 4 or 5. I'm new to Freeview and not impressed that the weather can take the service out that easily! Thanks

My advice is deal with it sooner rather than later. I had one in my kitchen last winter and I had to get a pest control company to get rid of it. Unfortunately it had eaten through the plaster wall behind my cooker and the main electrical supply cable to the kitchen before it popped its clogs. They can get through quite small holes - though I think mine entered via the dryer vent.

Since writing my piece, my new builders discovered highly dangerous wiring and a completely botched central heating installation which leaked underneath my kitchen floor. Needless to say - extra costs to rip out the existing floor and replace it. I only hope that the Cowboy Builders show manages to persuade Trading Standards to prosecute him.

Dulwich College has this afternoon issued a letter to parents warning them that there have been several pupils who have been mugged in the park recently. They recommend all students to travel through the park as quickly as possible and always in pairs or groups. And obviously not to resist if anyone demands their phone/iPod etc...

In defence of Stuart and his wife - Binda did not come across at all like he does in real life. He is incredibly persuasive. Because he claims to have been architecturally trained unless you have used an architect it is easy to think his methods are OK. He has done other work ( some are reference sites) which are fine. I rate him as a con man rather than a cowboy. He's perfectly capable of doing a decent job. He just chose not to with those of us who appeared on the programme. I think that makes him particularly dangerous.

It was me that first posted the warning on this forum which is how Stuart found out that others had suffered with him. Binda told me that he had trained as an architect in Italy but was quite careful to say that he was not qualified here. I believed he had the skills though... I'll come out of my EDF closet and say that I was on the show - my name is Lauraine. I have sued Binda - and won- but not got a penny. I even tried sending bailiffs in but he never answered his door so nothing happened. hence my pleasure in taking part in the show. I too was shocked he was working so near by - quite horrified because many of us believed he would not dare to be caught in this area. However one thing that Dom did say to me is that they always pass on all the evidence they have gathered ( and they were very thorough in researching for the show). He told me that three builders were being prosecuted from the earlier series, so I wait in hope to hear that Mr Binda gets his just desserts. It is quite shocking to realise that you are powerless to stop someone like that...