Dog Tale 4: Doppelganger Fallout

The fact that William had a doppelganger had its downside. It will be remembered that William's double was regularly allowed to run free, and on one--or many--of these excursions, he apparently did something very offensive in the backyard of people who rented a house up the street. I had no knowledge of this until the summer of 2005, when I was running for alderman--long after the doppelganger and his people had moved away.

That year, the motto of the Democratic ticket was "Unity in the Community," and because canvassing was a team effort, I was not the first to visit the home of the people whose backyard had been violated by William's doppelganger. Those campaigning for the citywide candidates were, and they got an earful about "the woman on this block who walks a black dog, lets him poop anywhere, and never picks up after him." My political colleagues said, "I don't think Carole would do that," but the people were adamant.

This was reported back to me, of course, and when I visited the house on my campaign rounds, I tried to impress upon them that I have always picked up after my dog. Their response was an incredulous "Yeah, right." It occurred to me that the offending canine might have been William's doppelganger, but they weren't buying it. They knew what they'd seen, and that was that. 

I'm sure I didn't get their votes, and their hostility toward me and William continued and seemed to escalate. Fortunately for us, they moved someplace else and don't live on our block anymore.