RE: dog died
I agree, You should have taken that dog to the VET. It makes my blood boil to hear about people accepting pets and not taking responsibility when something goes wrong.
On the second hand, If your NEIGHBOR did indeed poison a 7 month old choc lab...... He or She needs to answer questions and if you live in such a small town you know how small towns handle issues like this.
If this were my dog someone would be paying the price, however this would not happen since I don't let my dog out of the yard (I.E. electric fence)