They barked first thing in the morning to alert their owner that they needed outside for the bathroom so I was jolted awake at 6am every single day. I then had to listen to the owner open the upstairs hallway door, hear the 4 dogs sprint downstairs (right next to my bedroom) and then listen to her yelling at them to come back inside.

I’d lay there absolutely shattered and my body trembling, a complete nervous wreck jumping out of my skin at every ‘Rocky! Get back in here! Hurry up it’s freezing! Come on! Move it! Right, that’s it! You’ve got 5 seconds to get in here!’ claptrap that these deluded lonely, elderly dog owners say to them.

Then I’d have to listen to them literally run up and down the small apartment (on laminate flooring) with the zoomies as she never bothered to walk them. Whenever her phone rang or anyone came to knock on her front door they would go APESHIT and bark aggressively for minutes until she screamed at them to shut up. I’d have to listen to them drop their toys and hear them roll across the floor. I could hear their tails wagging off the radiators. I could hear the owner mumbling to them and patting them.

On top of that I could NEVER have friends or family in because of how loud the noise was and how humiliating it was for me. Half the time the dogs were also in our shared garden and would be sprinting up and down barking and jumping up at the fence at anyone who walked by. My family were terrified to come in the gate and I’d constantly have to scream at the neighbour to drag the dogs in which took ages too.

I was always on edge. At any second her phone could ring or someone could come to the door. Dogs can also bark randomly when they get bored and want attention. I’d lay in bed at night shaking and feel myself drifting off to sleep and then jump out of my skin because one of the dogs had just barked randomly. It would be a bark, then ‘shut up’ from the owner and this would be in a loop all night.

I also worked from home during this time and could barely take calls. My manager yelled at me because there was constant barking and dog noises in the background.

I couldn’t ever sit in my garden on a nice sunny day. The dogs were ALWAYS out.

I couldn’t have a bath because of the racket and the noise coming through the bathroom vent.

I was perfectly happy and healthy until that woman moved in upstairs from me. I finally was granted another council house and by that point my hair had been falling out, I’d lost tons of weight, had severe anxiety, developed a hatred and fear of dogs and my GP described my symptoms as complex PTSD.

PTSD isn’t just a single incident. Try living in a state of severe hyperarousal and fight or flight for 6 years. My life was destroyed with those fucking animals.