Bryan Cassidy, 75, first noticed the foul smell at his Southeast home two years ago. After running errands, volunteering at a hospital, or getting mad at public meetings, he would come home to a foul smell in his yard on 13th Street SE. His neighbor, 38-year-old Teeshay King, has two Great Danes that would defecate in her yard. Then King would put their doo in a recycling bin, which she’d leave by the front steps.

Cassidy wanted something done. The retired architect tried the city’s health and public-works departments, then the police. Finally, earlier this year, a health inspector came out, and King was sent a July 3 e-mail that read, “The use of the recycling bin for the feces is not allowed.” In May, King was fined for having a dog off a leash. Cassidy took pictures, too: huge turds spread over the sparse grass, plastic bags full of dung, and King, waving one of these bags with a defiant smile.

War was on. Cassidy claims King trained her dogs to bark at him. He built a concrete planter in the alley to divide her space from his. Then Cassidy alleged to police that King destroyed the planter. He also called officers claiming she’d chased him with a crowbar. King told an official, according to a government document, that he’d “stop at nothing” to harass her. Now Cassidy has fortified himself. At the front door, he’s installed a screen that lets him peer into her yard without being seen. At the back gate, he’s hung a black apparatus that he hopes she will mistake for a surveillance camera.

The police took Cassidy’s side. They arrested King on Nov. 29 and charged her with threatening bodily harm and owning a prohibited weapon. But don’t ask King what happened. “I’m not going to feed into that asinine bullshit,” she said. “We don’t have a dispute. I’m not aware of any dispute.”