L
lisa russell
Guest
On Saturday Jan 6, while taking orders for Girl Scout cookies in our neighborhood, my 4 children and I met the Ellis's- a couple who were trying to give away a dog. My kids played with him in the Ellis's yard for about 20-30 minutes while I talked to the Ellis's- getting all the info about the dog and why they were gatting rid of him- so there would be no suprises later. They said that we could take him then- but I wanted to call my husband who was out of town and get the ok from him first. They also told me that they had an add in the newspaper to get rid of him.
Later that night my husband called my kids and told us to go get the dog. When I called the Ellis's, Verona Ellis informed me that she could not let us have the dog because she thought my children would be afraid of him and that he would chew up all of their toys. On Saturday Jan. 13 (1 week later) Verona Ellis called me and said that she had changed her mind yet again and had to get rid of the dog and we could come and get him. This time I was a bit leery- as I did not want to upset my kids again. The next day when we came inside from working in our garden, we had 5 messages on our voice mail from Verona stating how worried she was about us not answering the phone and she wanted to see how Didgit was doing. Over the next week they would call up to 7 times a day (causing us to not answer our phone) and they would visit a few times to bring digit huge bones. Finally we decided to go out of town for a few days to get a break from this.
When we returned there were several letters under our door that stated that the Ellis's wanted Digit back and they offered us money as well as other things- such as a computer and beanie babies...Verona stated that "the dog is the glue that holds our family togetather and I will loose my son over this too" and "my husband will die from diabetes if you don't return Digit". I thought she was just a crazy old lady babbleing and felt sorry for her. Then I got a call from my daughters school saying that Verona had called there while we were gone demanding information about where we were. This I felt was stepping over the line of our familys privacy. The next time she called my husband said that though we pitied her- we would not break our childrens heart by returning the dog- and to stop calling. Her husband, who seems like a sensible person, called that night to say he just wanted to have some closure and confirm that we had no intentions of returning Digit to them. So we thought it was over.
Sinse then the Ellis's have been spotted driving by our house (which is at the back part of the street near the culdesac) very slowly and looking at our house. We have considered trying to get some kind of restraining order to stop this as well as any future phone calls, uninvited visits, or calls to my childrens school.
Saturday feb 17- I get a letter from WILLIAM J. RITCHIE Attorney at Law stating that he has been retained by Verona Ellis over the disagreement that has arisen over the ownership of Digit. It states that "the Ellis's are to emotionally attached to Digit and are not willing to part ownership" (though they already have) and that "they cannot voluntarily allow your family to remain in possession and control" and this sounds like a threat to me. And again it offers a few bribes including $500 in cash and a pedigree dog. The end of the letter states that he is authorized to "take legal action" if the dog is not returned in 5 days. The letter also states that one of the terms of them giving Digit to us, was that we would return him to them if they could not handle life without him. This is a total lie- no family with children would adopt a pet under those conditions.
Do they have any legal rights to this dog? Do we need an attorney?And do I have any legal rights to get them to stop harrassing us. We are now getting a security company to mann our alarm system- this is not an expense we wanted to have- but these people are starting to scare me. I'm sure that they truely love the dog- but I believe that Verona has developed a very unhealthy obsession with Digit as well our family
Later that night my husband called my kids and told us to go get the dog. When I called the Ellis's, Verona Ellis informed me that she could not let us have the dog because she thought my children would be afraid of him and that he would chew up all of their toys. On Saturday Jan. 13 (1 week later) Verona Ellis called me and said that she had changed her mind yet again and had to get rid of the dog and we could come and get him. This time I was a bit leery- as I did not want to upset my kids again. The next day when we came inside from working in our garden, we had 5 messages on our voice mail from Verona stating how worried she was about us not answering the phone and she wanted to see how Didgit was doing. Over the next week they would call up to 7 times a day (causing us to not answer our phone) and they would visit a few times to bring digit huge bones. Finally we decided to go out of town for a few days to get a break from this.
When we returned there were several letters under our door that stated that the Ellis's wanted Digit back and they offered us money as well as other things- such as a computer and beanie babies...Verona stated that "the dog is the glue that holds our family togetather and I will loose my son over this too" and "my husband will die from diabetes if you don't return Digit". I thought she was just a crazy old lady babbleing and felt sorry for her. Then I got a call from my daughters school saying that Verona had called there while we were gone demanding information about where we were. This I felt was stepping over the line of our familys privacy. The next time she called my husband said that though we pitied her- we would not break our childrens heart by returning the dog- and to stop calling. Her husband, who seems like a sensible person, called that night to say he just wanted to have some closure and confirm that we had no intentions of returning Digit to them. So we thought it was over.
Sinse then the Ellis's have been spotted driving by our house (which is at the back part of the street near the culdesac) very slowly and looking at our house. We have considered trying to get some kind of restraining order to stop this as well as any future phone calls, uninvited visits, or calls to my childrens school.
Saturday feb 17- I get a letter from WILLIAM J. RITCHIE Attorney at Law stating that he has been retained by Verona Ellis over the disagreement that has arisen over the ownership of Digit. It states that "the Ellis's are to emotionally attached to Digit and are not willing to part ownership" (though they already have) and that "they cannot voluntarily allow your family to remain in possession and control" and this sounds like a threat to me. And again it offers a few bribes including $500 in cash and a pedigree dog. The end of the letter states that he is authorized to "take legal action" if the dog is not returned in 5 days. The letter also states that one of the terms of them giving Digit to us, was that we would return him to them if they could not handle life without him. This is a total lie- no family with children would adopt a pet under those conditions.
Do they have any legal rights to this dog? Do we need an attorney?And do I have any legal rights to get them to stop harrassing us. We are now getting a security company to mann our alarm system- this is not an expense we wanted to have- but these people are starting to scare me. I'm sure that they truely love the dog- but I believe that Verona has developed a very unhealthy obsession with Digit as well our family