For those of my readers that are not dog owners, but are afraid/annoyed/infuriated/etc. at dogs and their wonky owners, I feel your pain. I mean, I'm a dog owner, but I definitely don't love every dog. Dog owners aren't all best friends. In fact, they often have little in common with one another other than frequenting the local pet supply store.
Case in point.
I have this neighbor, let's call her Lady Porcupine. She sort of looks like a porcupine, wears funny glasses, and has quite the prickly personality.
Lady Porcupine is probably in her sixties, is an active member of our homeowners' association, and lives alone. She has two of the most insane, yappy, out of control dogs I have ever seen in my life. They are little dogs (probably both under eight pounds), but they seriously scare me. I am talking snarling, showing teeth, high pitched barking, the works.
She frequently walks Yappy #1 and Yappy #2 on the sidewalk in front of our condo, and without fail, every evening, her dogs throw down on an innocent passerby. Poor pedestrians. They're just out for a peaceful stroll, and they nearly get their limbs bitten off by the devil dogs. And you want to know what her response is?
"Oh...now stop that! Oh, you stop that. Why are you being so loud? Stop that. Why are you barking? Quiet down, please."
Ok, Lady Porcupine, first of all, don't act surprised at your dogs' bad behavior. They bark every time they encounter a living thing. Secondly, we need to have a little talk. In addition to Yappy #1 and Yappy #2 not listening to you, you don't pick up after your dogs. Ever.
You are making all of us dog owners look bad.
You are the reason that every time I walk my dog I make it into a big production. I make sure everyone in the vicinity sees me take a plastic bag out of my pocket, and I spend extra time visibly scooping up poop. I am getting tired of putting on my one-woman poop show.
But I know that it's not just you, Lady Porcupine. Yappy #1 and Yappy #2 could not have possibly produced all of the crap I see as I walk my dog. Is there a secret club or a Yahoo Group devoted to people that don't clean up after their dogs?
It's so irritating. All of the responsible dog owners in our neighborhood get lumped in with the lazy ones.
This upsets me every time I have to walk by hostile lawn signs with pictures of Elmer Fudd on them that say "Pick up after your dog. It's the law!"
Yeah, so apparently, the people down the block from us have too much time on their hands, and like to craft together lawn signs with cartoons on them. But, maybe they haven't completely lost it. Maybe they are just sick of having to pick up other people's dog poop off their lawn?
Or maybe I have lost it because I am writing a blog post about this. Either way, this is the dog situation in my neighborhood.
Anyone else fed up with misbehaving dog owners?
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5 thoughts:
TOTALLY! I have a boxer dog and live in a condo (and have lived in 2 now with this do). I ALWAYS have bags around for my dog and ALWAYS pick up after him. I'll admit, I wasn't great about it at one condo we lived at, but at least I took him all the way to the furthest point on the property to do his #2 then. Now, I pick up! Maybe you should secretly leave a box of bags to "help" her pick up after her dogs?
I'm not a little dog person. I like big, durable dogs, and the boxer is a great fit for me. He's active enough that it requires me to get off my butt, and barks maybe once a month. Totally awesome. :)
(Makes embarrassed face.) I think I might be an alternate version of Porcupine. Jellyby the shih tzu is a bit imbalanced -- sometimes she sees other dogs and she wants to be their BFFs, other times, she wants to eat them (even if they are a rotweiler four times her size). And in those latter moments, I have to yell "enough, you crazy dog." But I'm sure the other dog's owner is like, "enough, you crazy dog owner; get a grip on your creature!" Sigh.
Oh man my parents have a yapper, but gosh do I love her. I guess when it's yours it's not so bad but one it's coming from someone else's dog... yikes. Annoying!
@J. Darling: I think this is mainly a city issue. If you live in a more rural setting, I don't think it matters as much whether you pick up poop. And I have seen homeowners that put bags out! It's funny to see, but hey - maybe it helps people to remember to pick up after their pooches.
@Mrs. HC: I don't think Jellyby is even in the same category as the devil dogs. If you saw them, you would probably hug Jellyby tight and thank God that she's such a good girl. Seriously, these dogs are NUTSO!!
@junghwa: Hahaha! That's so true! My dogs can be a real pain in the butt, but I'm probably harder on other dogs, because...well...they aren't mine! :)
Nobody in our neighborhood picks up after their dogs, but us! We live in a townhome subdivision, so we have "lawns" but don't own them, so apparently they think it's ok to leave poop everywhere. Well, it's not because (a) it's gross (b) my dog likes to eat poop, so walks have turned into a repulsive buffet and an exercise in "leave it" and "drop it." Frankly, I am tired of shouting "leave it! drop it" every two seconds! It's not hard people- pick up the poop! The other day we were walking our dog, and she peed, and some stupid kids yell at me "EEEEW You better pick up that dog doo!" Little MFers! WE are the ONLY people who DO pick up the doo, and it's PEE, so SHUT IT! So yea, I now have an ongoing feud with neighbor kids. And you thought YOU were nuts.
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