My next-door neighbor has a backed-up (or broken) drainage pipe. A pool of gray, murky, stagnant water has slowly accumulated, for a couple of weeks, right at base of her garage door. With the recent heat and winds, this fecal-smelling water can be smelled up and down our back driveway.

Ours is a neighborhood of rowhouses. I can't open my bedroom or kitchen windows, for I don't want to breathe in that foul smell!

On Friday, I typed and left the following note on her back porch railing AND on her front door:

Hello:

Please procure a contractor to drain the accumulated stagnant water on your property. With the heat and winds, this water can be smelled up and down the block. This water smells very terrible and is a health hazard. Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter.

The neighbor has parked her car right in front of the garage, so she is very aware of the water and the smell!

She left town earlier this week with her house still in this condition; we haven't seen her or her 12-yr. old daughter since Monday.

(This is the same neighbor who threw out her cat two years ago [for contracting fleas] and left out in winter to starve until I reported the incident to fellow freecyclers. I fed the cat until a kind freecycler from Bensalem came down to Mt. Airy and rescued the cat. The cat now lives with a family in Cape May, NJ.)

What should I do? Call the police? Call a contractor and pay him to drain this water? I'm scared to touch the water. Who knows what diseases may be lurking in that water! It's supposed to rain Saturday. I don't want that nasty water washing over to my property!

Thanks for your advice.