flashbacks to Target... a tail of dog doo-doo

Today there was a little... altercation in my neighborhood.  It was pretty crazy.  It all started when my neighbor Myrian witnessed a child out with her two dogs, neither of which had a leash.  The dogs pooped on the grass and the girl did not clean up after them.  Ironically, this happened right in front of the sign that tells people to clean up after their dog or they will be fined.  Myrian is nice, so she politely asked the girl to clean up after the dog.  The girl said she would, and then went home.  And she never came back out.  So Myrian called the association to complain.  That should really be the end of the story, right? 

Well, a representative from the association came over to tell the people to clean up after their dog.  They were kind enough to tell the dog owner that Myrian was the one that had complained, and they gave her Myrian's unit number.  I'm not kidding.  So a few of us moms are outside watching our kiddos play, and we see this extremely aggitated woman stomping to Myrian's house and bang on her door.  Myrian was just going to ignore the lady, because she didn't realize that Myrian was standing there watching her, but then Myrian decided that she'd better just talk to the lady and get it over with.  I went with Myrian because a) I was worried for her safety and b) I like a good fight occassionally.  The lady was crazy.  She was cussing up a storm, going on and on about how they always clean up after their dog, and that it was the other people who let their dogs poop everywhere.  She said that she was a good mom and she homeschooled her kids and she teaches them that they have to clean up, etc.  Myrian said she didn't know about other days, but today, she and other people witnessed her daughter not cleaning up, even when they politely asked her to.  At this point, the lady started calling Myrian and me bad names.  Lots of choice four and five letter words.  I was glad that all the kids were playing on the other side of the building.  I kept telling the lady she needed to calm down.  If it was the only time anyone had complained, she would surely not be fined, etc.  She just got in my face, called me more names, and asked me how I would like it if she had her children leave a bag of dog poop on my front step.  I told her that would be fine, I'd just call the association.  She then started accusing Myrian of not being legal.  Myrian moved to the US like 15 years ago.  She is a citizen.  She does still have a Portuguese accent, but she is an American.  Myrian didn't know what to say to that, so I defended her and told Crazy Lady that Myrian was a citizen, and that she had no right to bring her prejudices into the misunderstanding about dog doo-doo.  Seriously.  The craziest part of it all is that Myrian has lived in her house for more than six years.  She's probably lived here longer than anyone else in the whole complex.  The lady cussed at us some more and flipped us off and finally stalked away.  I shouldn't have said it, but as she was leaving, I could help but say to her, "I'm sorry you are home schooling your kids."  Probably not the best thing to say, but I don't think she heard it, or at least didn't understand what I meant.  At that point I just really was feeling sorry for her kids. 
After she left, Myrian called the association people to tell that that they have no right to tell people the unit number of the person who complained, and that now she is being harrassed and threatened and doesn't feel safe.  She was crying.  It was really sad.  She asked me how I could handle the whole thing so calmly.  I told her I worked at Target for two years.  That was more than sufficient training to deal with Crazy Lady.  A little later I took Myrian some raspberry sorbet.  Everyone needs a little HagenDaz every once in a while.