Before we all say goodbye to our summer, stop for a moment and savor the story of Sunnyvale Councilman Patrick Meyering and his neighbor’s dog, a white mini-poodle named Buddy.

You may remember Meyering as the councilman who skipped charm school. He is regularly at odds with colleagues. He inveighs against developers the way other people say grace. An attempt to recall him fell through.

The councilman, who is an attorney, lives in the 300 block of Duane Avenue, next to a Spanish-speaking couple. He has complained about his neighbors before, alleging — among other things — that they played pool too loudly in their backyard.

But it was the arrival of Buddy last April that truly disturbed Meyering’s peace of mind. In small claims court, he brought a suit against his neighbors, Maria and Lorenzo Martinez, alleging that Buddy barked so consistently that it sounded like “sheet metal being ripped apart.”

I will admit I’ve never heard sheet metal being ripped apart. According to a reliable source who was in the courtroom, Meyering told Commissioner Christine Copeland that he and his girlfriend could no longer use their backyard.

He sought “up to $10,000” in damages, citing 61 barking incidents and asking to be reimbursed $74 for the cost of a noise meter and batteries.

Interpretation

Meyering also took aim at the interpreter in the small claims hearing, a woman named Marta. It appears that Marta’s dog had peed on his lawn (her version) or defecated (Meyering’s version). The commissioner ruled that this incident wasn’t relevant.

Maria Martinez, Buddy’s legal owner, defended herself by summoning statements from eight other neighbors, who said there was no barking dog problem. She also claimed Meyering had rebuffed chances at cooperation before, declining talks with Project Sentinel, a mediation service.

Finally, Martinez said they had been given only one official warning about the dog by Sunnyvale’s public safety officers. The Martinezes were not cited or sanctioned.

In an email to me this week, Meyering again mentioned the pool incident and said none of the neighbors on Martinez’s side came to court. “The next-door dog barking persists,” he wrote. “Late yesterday afternoon, the dog ran down the street alone with no leash or person, howling as he ran.”

The commissioner didn’t take long to reach a verdict. In an Aug. 21 ruling, Copeland said Meyering had no other witnesses — namely, neighbors — to support his claim. “It is plaintiff’s burden to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that defendants’ dog is a nuisance,” she wrote. “Plaintiff has not met his burden.”

No reimbursement

The commissioner also declined Meyering’s request for $74 for the noise measuring device and its batteries. And she rebuffed his request that Martinezes hire a dog sitter or always keep the dog inside, though she left open the chance he could try again.

If you ask what it all means, the answer might be twofold: First, being a council member and an attorney doesn’t mean you’ll prevail in small claims court. That’s probably a good thing for the country as a whole. And second, maybe Meyering should have gone to charm school after all. Then again, our summer might have been less amusing if he had.

Contact Scott Herhold at 408-275-0917 or sherhold@mercurynews.com. Twitter.com/scottherhold.