Love Thy Neighbor As Thy Self

My son has decided that he is going to play the trumpet.  He is in the fifth grade and now has Band as one of his classes. He is very excited because he likes anything that makes noise! We made the decision to rent his instrument since it has yet to be proven if he will stick with the trumpet or decide that he wants to play something else. He has the choice to play three other instruments but has his heart set on the trumpet. I hope he enjoys it and sticks with it!

Our dogs are not quite as excited about the trumpet as my son is and I am sure that my neighbors are going to love us even more than they already do! I love my neighbors to the right of me but the neighbors on the left are not so friendly to say the least. Although they have two dogs, they can't stand to hear dogs bark.  I can hear the woman screaming "shut up" at her dogs at least 10 times a day.  I try to keep mine quiet because I am sure that she will be annoyed and that it is her wireless network that is named "KEEP YOUR DOGS QUIET."

When I first moved into my house a couple of years ago, I tried to be friendly and say hi to these wonderful neighbors several times with no luck. I mean these people would literally turn their heads and ignore me. They have two children and they were friendly at first but that stopped really quickly for some reason. I think I even met up with the man of the house at the mailbox one time and he wouldn't even look at me!  I swear I haven't done anything that would make them act this way.

I kind of figured they were a little different because they planted these trees/bushes all the way round their yard to avoid anyone from looking into their yard.  This is my view of their backyard from my bedroom window on the second story of my house. At first I was thinking that since they have a pool they wanted some privacy but I think it goes beyond that! These bushes are now growing into my yard and I am not sure if I can just cut them or if I have to ask them first. With my luck, I would end up killing their bushes if I cut them and then they would have a cardiac!

After speaking to my "nice" neighbors on the right, they quickly confirmed my suspicions about my neighbors to the left. They mentioned that they are not the most friendliest people and had once been confronted by them about their dog barking. My nice neighbors quickly pointed out to them that their black cat (that poops loves to poop in everybody's backyard) is the reason why all of the dogs in the neighborhood bark. They denied owning the black cat and never returned. I am certain that the black cat belongs to them since their kids address the cat by name and it lays on their front porch.

So tell me do you have nice neighbors? Would you just go ahead and cut the bushes or would you knock on their door and talk to them about it?