the boys next door

Until a couple of weeks ago, the house to the west of Chez Melina had been empty for months. This was mainly due to the owner's asking a ridiculous purchase price for it.

Recently he decided to take it off the market (lowering the price would have made more sense, in my opinion) and rent it again. 

This caused some mild apprehension on my part. Would the new tenants be:

• Owners of dogs that bark 24/7? I already have that from my east-side neighbor. If the renter has barking dogs, I guess I'll have them in stereo.
• Hard-drinking idiots, like the psycho blonde who moved out last year? I don't mind quiet alcoholics, but when they begin screaming at me for feeding rats (she was so drunk one evening that she mistook a possum for a rat), this is when I remove my watch and become hostile.
• Cat haters? This actually worried me more than anything else. Cat haters have been known to put out antifreeze; this is attractive both cats and dogs but causes a horrific death via renal failure.

However, the news is good. The new neighbor is a polite and easy-going man, mid-30s, who resembles Brendan Frasier. He also has a six-year old who is well-behaved, and an invisible brother with an elderly dog. Invisible Brother drives an expensive BMW but lives in the granny flat above the garage. I'm beginning to wonder if he's on the lam.

I spent part of yesterday with the six-year old, as he is very fond of cats and I was keeping two kittens at my place for the day. He looked quite sad when the adoptor came to claim them. I felt sorry for him, but his dad insists that his exe would "blow a gasket" if their son arrived with a kitten in tow.