How to get myself out of this one?

Is it ok to lie to your neighbor to avoid looking like a nosy beast?

The guy that lives behind us has a super cute yellow lab and the past few mornings the dog has been yelping so loud it seriously sounds like the guy is beating the dog.

We're BIG animal people in this house, and it made me sick to my stomach to think of this poor dog back there being treated like this. So this morning I saw the guy out there; I put on some respectable clothes and marched right over there thinking of what I would say once I got to his house.

Walking up I told the guy I worked for a vets office and I had heard the dog yelping the past few mornings and he sounded like he was really hurt and I just wanted to make sure the dog was ok...

Turns out the dog. PJ, has a shock collar on cause he's still a puppy and PJ digs under the fence...um ok I guess...then the guy tells me that PJ probably just has separation anxiety because the guy is a firefighter for LA and sometimes he's gone for over 24 hours (then why do you have a dog?). This is his 3rd lab.

Ok so well I feel a little better at least he's not beating the dog while I sit back and ignore it. I introduce myself, offer to walk the dog for him, tell him I live right behind him, just wanted to make sure the dog was ok, and that I really do work for a vet's office (I really don't), cause he joked about it being a cover to be nosy.

Then he looks me right in the eye and says, "So, what vet's office do you work for?"

Secretly sweating on the inside cause I'm totally busted, I just moved here! I don't know of a single vet's office! $%&* #$%&!!
Suddenly! Genius! I remember! There's a vet's office just a few blocks away on the corner of PCH and Redondo! I calmly tell him, "Oh, just the one down the block ya know, the one on the corner of PCH and Redondo?"

He goes, "Oh, yeah! That's where I take PJ all the time!"

Busted.

So now, not only am I a nosy neighbor, I'm a freakin liar...