meeting the neighbors?

When we were trying to decide on which of the "top two" houses to buy here in Atenas, Joe and i met with each of the houses' neighbors to help us decide. We figured that these were the best indicators of who and what we would be experiencing in living in each locale. The #1 house was/is new, new, new and perfect in every way. The neighbor house to the left was a five bedroom house that the builder/developer had built to rent out. The neighbor house to the right was the developer's and he intended to live there half the year while running his business in the United States the rest of the year at which time the house would be empty. He was nice enough but it made us a bit nervous that the left/rental house would be loud with partiers and the empty house wouldn't be much company. We were a bit uncomfortable that we'd be isolated. We met the next day with the neighbors from house #2. This house was twelve years old and not perfect. It did have a bigger lot but the house wasn't as elegant (or sparkling new). The neighbors, Bucky and Linda, were very charismatic. Lunch went ok ("can't go to that restaurant....there's not enough meat") and we thought that we would get along well with this couple next door. And the house #2 was closer to town so it would be less isolated and perhaps safer from theft (?). We ended up buying house #2. And, have never socialized with Bucky and Linda again besides one short cocktail/beer bash at their house. We wave on passing and aren't hostile...they just were friendly until they could get what they wanted (us to cut some trees on our shared border, permission to chop down their tree which meant that our power would be out for 12 hours while the power lines were down), then they retreated to their enclave and have never been open to our social advances. You live, you learn.>>>>>>>Last month, we were able to meet another "neighbor". We woke to broken egg shells and egg remnants on our counters and open screen in the kitchen. I thought originally that it was naughtiness from our kitties but we were proved wrong. Joe woke to a noise to find a racoon in our kitchen...which he and the kitties chased out. He had been eating the cat food too (we saw hit paw/hand prints) so Mash had a vested interest in shooing him out. With our taking a week away and the house being all locked up, the raccoon moved on.>>>>>>>Then, we last night got to meet another "neighbor". We heard a deep growling in our bedroom and, while our kitties growl and spat overnight, this sounded even deeper. Joe flipped on the light and yelled at me to open the sliding door in the kitchen. Was it our raccoon friend? nope. Was it the kitties? nope. OCELOT!!! Yikers! In our bedroom!! Welcome to the jungle!! The ocelot was quick to run out the door and Mash ran back onto our bed. Libby, our smaller kitty, was gone. And has been for the past 36 hours...only to just show up ten minutes ago, sauntering through the kitchen like there was nothing new under the sun, nibbling two or three kibbles then off to lounge on the bed. Where she hid for the past day and half? Anyone's guess. >>>>>>> So, meeting the neighbors has been interesting and informative. We have yet to meet any that we want to have an enduring relationship with! That said, i might rather have a raccoon or ocelot in the house than the armed stranger that i risked having "visit" in the US. But that's just me.....