7

There is such a deep, great satisfaction in having blocked my nutty neighbor's calls (regarding her ongoing conviction that I am starving my cats) today.

She had tried to call me five times by the early afternoon when I asked my friend A. if she knew if it was possible to block a "Private Number."

In fact, it is!

A. fiddled with the phone company for a little, and VOILA! No more calls from this woman. EVER. Of course, she lives next door, but she's afraid of people, so she won't come over. In the five years we've lived here, she's never come over.

Just the calls: First it was an occasional call with a seemingly legitimate concern about our cats. Then she decided to start FEEDING our (chubby) cats, then she decided that I was taking advantage of her, and asked me for money for feeding our cats, etc. etc.

WOMAN! LEAVE MY CATS ALONE! I told her that several times, but still, the calls... ("Hello. Your cats are on my porch again and they seem very hungry. Can you call them home and feed them please?")

I stopped answering the calls, and she stopped leaving messages, but she kept calling, and calling, and calling, and it was sucking out my soul. But now she can *never call me again*. If she calls, she'll get a message that we're not accepting calls.

The satisfaction runs deep. I'm lumbering around the house with a smile on my face.