I moved next door to a guy called Dave. He lived alone with his 4 rescue dogs.

Dave was very welcoming. He knocked to my house the day we moved in and gave me a bottle of wine as a gift and introduced himself. I liked Dave from that moment.

Dave had disabilities so had a disabled car speck outside of his house. The parking in that street was a nightmare and had a huge impact on our decision to move. I will get to why this is important soon.

There was an old couple called Mr and Mrs Love (how cute?) Lovely old dears. They stopped to say hi one day whilst I was painting my front wall. Mrs Love told me to be careful of Dave. Apparently he was an awful man who complains and fights with all the neighbors. He would call the police for no good reason and he was cruel to his dogs.

Ok, Wow!

The woman across the street told me he was a p***phile who took videos from his bedroom of kids playing.

Another told me he called child protection on them for abusing their kids.

He shot next door but one’s cat with a pellet gun because it was in his garden, one of them said.

So, Dave was not a popular chap!

I'm not one for gossip but it's hard not to be wary when all your neighbors are telling you that the antichrist is living next door.

When my dog had puppies, Dave gave me his number and told me to call him any time, day or night, if I needed help. He was slightly deaf and didn't always hear the door bell.

Dave let me use the shared entry that was also his to store some things that I had no space for.

Dave fed my cat when I went away.

Dave never complained when my teenage son and his friends were rowdy.

Dave told me he was leaving his home to the Dogs Trust upon his death, in return for them to take his dogs and rehome them.

Dave looked after my dogs when I was going through something and wasn't home a lot. He never pried. He just supported me by being there.

Dave cried when I gave him a Christmas card. He never had one before from a neighbor.

Dave helped me move to my new house which wasn't far away, by bringing bits around that I forgot when the movers came.

The parking spot was the reason that the neighbors started a witch hunt for Dave. They said he scammed the council and wasn't really ill. Dave got something that they wanted. They didn't like it. Dave had cancer by the way. Nobody cared to ask. It was easier to start a hate campaign. It took one neighbor to tell an exaggerated story and begin the snowball effect that had Dave labelled as a pariah.

I still see Dave.

The other neighbors, I walk past them if I see them around. All of them are the worst neighbors I ever had.

I hope the couple who moved in to my house appreciate how lucky they are to have Dave next door.

Was walking around the lobby/parking lot in a show for all ages where we were zombies. Little kids were given wands that, if waved at us, signaled that we would turn away and shamble after someone else.

My friend shambles up to a little boy, probably 4 years old, who apparently doesn’t have a wand but instead just begins viscerally and repeatedly flipping us off for all he can manage. Non stop just finger after finger after finger, both hands. All of us had to stumble away laughing, both because we got the hint and trying not to break character.