A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 18

We already had a story about rival tow truck operators, but this takes the grudge narrative to a whole other level: Neighbors shoot each other over defecating dog:

JACKSON, Miss. — An argument between two armed neighbors over a dog and its feces escalated to a shootout in rural Mississippi, sending one neighbor to the hospital with injuries from shotgun pellets and the other neighbor to jail.

Terry Tenhet, 52, told The Associated Press he was struck Wednesday in both hands, the shoulder, chest and side by the spray of pellets from shotgun blasts fired by his neighbor, Jerry Blasingame, 60. The wounds are not life-threatening.

Washington County Sheriff’s Assistant Chief Deputy Billy Barber said Tenhet was angry at Blasingame because he thought Blasingame’s mixed-breed dog had defecated in his lawn.

Each man described his side of the argument and shootout to The Associated Press.

Tenhet says he was friends with Blasingame and only went over to his house to complain in general about the dog feces in his lawn — not to accuse him — and encountered a drunk and irate neighbor.

Blasingame told the AP that they argued because Tenhet shot his dog last week and threatened to kill him and his dog “over poop.”

Tenhet denies shooting the dog: “I said ‘Jerry, your dog ain’t even dead. He said ‘Just meet me at the levee and I’ll shoot you down.’”

Since we already considered a comedy with the tow trucks, how about a thriller this time? There’s a guy and his family. A new family moves in. They turn out to be poor neighbors. Start small and tensions can build. Then you can work the dynamic — did they or didn’t they? The dog is missing. A flat tire. Strange phone calls. Is it them? Paranoia? You can go all-out on the violence front like War of the Roses or Needful Things.

All starting with dog poop.