I'm stuck between all sorts of rocks and hard places here and am about to
lose my mind. I have to do something about it, and would like some input.

First, the background:

I am surrounded by neighbors with dogs that bark all night long. If one's
quiet, others aren't. Most nights they keep me from getting a good rest.
It's only a little bit easier in winter because I can keep the windows
closed, but I can't do that all year without air conditioning.

The neighbor on the west has three dogs that they lock in the utility room,
spitting distance from my bedroom window, every night. They leave an outside
door wide open with a gate across the bottom half so the dogs can't get out,
and the inner door is closed to the rest of their house, and they sleep on
the opposite side of the house with their bedroom door shut so they don't
hear their own dogs barking all night.

The dogs run loose all the time, which is against a city leash law, and they
poop in my yard daily as well as tear into trash cans and leave trash of all
kinds scattered all over my yard.

One of these dogs has attacked children riding bicycles along the street and
has attacked me twice and has attacked the man across the street also.

This evening I caught the woman letting the dogs run through my yard and
asked her politely to please keep them in her own yard. She started bitching
at me, and I told her those dogs keep me awake all the time, and that
there's not only a leash law but also a barking law, and that I've put up
with a lot from their dogs and never complained to the police about them
because I wanted to be neighborly, but by God do I not also deserve a bit of
consideration?

Then her husband starting yelling at me to get off of their property (I was
standing between the two houses talking to the woman and not really paying
attention to which side of the property line I was on) or he was going to
have me arrested for trespassing.

He also said not to complain to him about the dogs, that they NEVER bark at
night and NEVER leave his yard, and it must be other dogs that I hear and
whose poop I walk through, etc. and that I had better call the police about
it, and if I want solitude I should move out to the country.

Well because of this attitude I am thinking it's time to make a formal
complaint. The lady who used to live across the street says she will testify
to seeing them let those dogs run into my yard all the time and she also saw
the attack on the child on the bicycle. I'm going to try and find the child,
and speak with the man across the street who got attacked also.

It's pure luck that no one has been hurt so far. That dog came after me
growling and snarling on two different occasions and scared the life out of
me. I can only imagine how scared the boy must have been. The owners of the
dogs know about the attacks. Every time one happens, they will keep that dog
tied up for a few weeks, but then they go back to letting it run free.

What has stopped me so far from making a formal complaint is (a) my word
against theirs (which has now been solved), (b) not wanting to make an enemy
(I no longer have a choice on that part), and (c) fear of retaliation -
e.g., they set fire to my house, or poison the cats once I can let them out
into the yard.

Ideally, this whole group purrs up a reason for these folks to just MOVE
OUT. Or I find a way to buy that house (it's for sale) and rent it to
tenants of my own choosing.

Failing that, what do you think I ought to do? I haven't had a decent
night's sleep in 16 months, and it is literally killing me, and no way on
earth will I risk the safety of the cats, but they deserve to be able to go
outside.