Shot A Dog With A Pellet Gun. Dog Owners Came Over To Talk About It

There is a family in my neighborhood who I would consider "trashy". It's the daughter of the original owners and they had to be forced to remove an old car with grassing growing around it, out of their yard. They will go 2-3 weeks during the summer without mowing their grass, etc. Well they have a few dogs, they don't have collars and they just let them roam around the neighborhood.

Every once in awhile my dogs will see them through the window. Sometimes when they are outside the dogs come up to the gate and my dogs go insane. Today they were in my yard barking at my dogs, who were inside.. And my dogs were barking and going nuts.. I got tired of it and went get my pellet gun (it's one of those CO2 pistols). When I opened the front door the dog kind slowly moved away barking at me so I shot at it and hit it in the upper hind leg. The dog whined and took off running.

About 2 hours later someone is at my door. It's the daughter and her boyfriend. I opened the door and they started kind of yelling. I didn't want to be in the front yard yelling with these people so I invited them in, offered them something to drink. The daughter started telling me about how her kids said when they heard their dog they looked in the direction they heard the dog and saw me with a gun. I told them we can handle this like adults no need to yell..

And I said "lately there have been a few dogs that come around and bark at my dogs through the window, getting them all worked up. They go outside and the dogs are at the fence and they are barking at each other and that today one of the dogs was in my yard, barking at my dogs, who were in the window barking back at them. I had enough of it so I got the pellet gun and I just wanted to scare it off. There was no collar on the dog, I didn't know if it was a stray so I just wanted to scare it off.

The daughter told me "we saw the pellet in the road, right before coming in your driveway and we are still considering calling the police so we have evidence you shot our dog". I told her "if you feel that's what you need to do, go ahead. I am not sure what they can do, but I have nothing to hide. A dog, with no collar, has been coming in my yard, my dogs get worked up and today I had enough and just wanted to scare it off. I apologize it was your dog, but all I did was sting him a little bit".

Her boyfriend then started siding with me, telling her he just wanted to scare him away. She started to come to her senses and they both apologized. She still looked pissed, but I told them if they ever want to come drink a beer, they are welcome any time. The boyfriend was thankful, the daughter didn't really say too much. Should I be concerned she will try to do something to my dogs?