A Rant...Pick up your dog poo!

Ok..so you know by now that during the week we live an apartment complex in Jacksonville, FL. It's well maintained, if a little old and the maintenance guys clear rubbish up every morning, so at first glance you'd say it looked pretty clean for a big developement. A closer look however reveals tons and tons of dog poo that people don't pick up.

Gary has a Bag on Board attached to his lead, with bio degradable bags, however I've only seen one other owner picking up after their pet here, and there are lots of dogs.

It's disgusting, especially during the hot humid days where it really starts to smell in certain areas - the stinkiest area near us ( about 500 ft away) has a sign that says to pick up dog poo...Ha! Huge big dollops everywhere...we don't walk there anymore..

I wondered what I could do to encourage people to pick up..I'd love to post something in everyone's mailbox that tells them that pet waste left on the ground, especially near streets and sidewalks, gets washed into storm drains and drainage ditches which flow to the local waterway. This water does not get cleaned or treated along the way, so anything that goes into the storm drain or ditch goes into the water. Bacteria, parasites, and viruses found in pet waste can be harmful to water quality and human health.

These offending dog owner's dogs (including Gary) are probably walking in the old poo and picking up bacteria, and if the owners cannot be bothered to pick up, then it's likely that they have not had their dogs wormed etc...my dog is picking up your dog's bacteria...thanks for that.

I love this North Carolina postcard which people are sent and encouraged to post in places of interest (vet clinics, animal shelters, and other sites) ...I'd like to post on some people's heads around here!

It seems in some places (Boulder) you can get people to pick up, then they leave the bags! You've done the hard part people, throw it in the trash...



I'm going to approach the management to ask them to include something in next months flyer and ask them to consider putting up some more dog poo bag stands (say that quickly when you've had a few !!) I only know of one and this site is enormous.



I'll let you know how I go!

Dog Days.....

Today was a miserable day in Jacksonville (where we live during the week). It has rained intermittently most of the day, at some times really heavily, at other times just sprinkling....guess when Gary wanted to go walking!

I'm sure he can sense the weather change, and had looked glum since our fun walk this morning, where we saw raccoons at the bin store..you can imagine how excited Gary was, although you can't let your dog tangle with a Raccoon, their claws are razor sharp and they are frequent carriers of rabies. I managed to get a quick pic on my Blackberry...shame they are so vicious cause they are super cute.

Anyway I digress. Gary had spent most of the day on the bed, looking glum. I tried to coax him out with biscuits and ice cubes, but he always returned to the bed. He was even too miserable to play with his ball..so I left him alone and went to do some work on my website..http://www.lovesparkles.com/ which I'm in process of re-writing... it was getting greyer and more miserable outside and there had been a few claps of thunder. Now Gary is not scared of storms, but they do wake him up, and in he toddles and sits by the door to the balcony to look outside.

Unable to resist his little face I offered him a walk, thinking the thunder had ceased for the moment, but not actually looking out of the window at the rain. Well he hadn't looked so happy all day and went to find his lead.

We headed out the front door and it was then I realised that we were going to get very wet....but unable to back out of my promise of 'walkies' had to go...

I've just got changed...soaked to the skin..Gary was loving jumping in and out of the puddles, whilst I encouraged him to 'do his business!!' so we could get back. I guess he could feel my desire to get back in the dry because we were out there nearly 30 minutes and he waited until we were nearly home, with his mummy totally frustrated, to finally do what he was supposed to...it was if he was laughing at me...

They call these the dog days...now I know why!