A man about a dog

"I've lived here 12 years. The bloke upstairs was writing letters to the housing association, the council, the ombudsman, people I'd never heard of, complaining about my dogs - but he never come and knocked on my door and spoke to me, I didn't know who it was complaining, I'm getting letters saying people are complaining and threatening me I'm going to lose my home, but I don't know who's doing it, right?

One time I got so frustrated, I went and shouted outside the flats, cause I knew if I went to him that would be harrassment, and he could hear me... You can't believe someone would want to make you lose your home and not come and talk to you about it. He was a quiet bloke with a bike, never said nothing to me, he was throwing stuff down on my dogs, poisoned bones with vinegar on them, you know what that does? It rots their stomachs and makes them ill. Only reason I knew, the girl next door filmed him and showed me.

I'm a good lad, you know? I grew up in Hackney and I used to be a bad boy, with the wrong people, but I'm trying to do the right thing now and stay in work. My mates said, do you want us to set fire to his house? And I go, no no, it's my home too - the old me would have done that, but not now. There used to be break-ins here but since I got my dogs there's been no trouble, they're guard dogs. When I moved in here I used to have my mates round and they said I was drug dealing, but I was just a young bloke, and my friends all still lived at home, they just came around here a lot...

I don't feel safe here, that's why I got my dogs, I don't know why someone like you wants to live here, I don't want to live here. I worry about my son, and my girlfriend. It's not a good place to live, what is there here? I've got ten dogs, the rest are with her. We don't get on when we live together, so this is the only place I've got. There's lots of Muslims on this estate, lots of Africans, and they don't like dogs, it's in their culture. He was Jewish, they don't like dogs either. I asked the housing association to move me, but they won't, they say it'll just be a problem somewhere else.

I'm not racist, my dad's black, my mum's white - I didn't live with them though, I grew up in children's homes and foster homes. I'm used to being on my own, I'm okay with that, I've always had dogs, they're loyal. He told me he was renting the place out, and I thought, whoever moves in can't be worse than him... he didn't say he was selling the place. I try and read people, and I can tell you're trying, I respect the fact that you came and spoke to me, he never did that. I'll put a muzzle on them when I go out, and I'll check out this trainer stuff you've given me... My dogs are the only trouble you'll have living here, it's not rough or anything."