Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

I’m Calling This Week Done

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Oh hello. Please don’t mind me, I’ve just gotten back from vacation, have some personal stuff going on and just can’t seem to pull my head out of my ass long enough to be a blogger again. Case in point, I missed Tuesday’s post all together.

It’s not like I didn’t know it was Monday. Hellooooo…I had the day off, I knew I had a post deadline for 4Knines, but somehow, I just lost my mind and when I woke up on Tuesday, I was like….whoops. Missed that one.

So rather than stress about it and struggle to throw a post together, I decided I’ll just post today and call this week done.  Not counting tomorrow’s FUF post, of course. (Providing I can get my shit together.)

Anyhow, I hope at some point I’ll be able to pull some posts together that are rolling around in my head, and I pray to DOG that I can get around and visit some blogs, but it’s damn hard right now, so please forgive me.

I did want to share something with you though.

We have a bit of a wild back yard. It’s super hilly and steep and there are lots of trees and lots of shrubs/ground cover/weeds.

SO MUCH.  Usually Hubby gets out there in early summer and mows/weed whacks it all down, but this year he left one side of the hill wild.

Typically I hate this. I mean, there’s always ONE house on the street that looks like hillbillies live there (amIright?) And I damn sure don’t want it to be MY house.

I’m not sure if it’s my general “MEH” attitude, lack of interest, or because I’ve just literally given all my fucks away, and therefore have no more fucks to give, but the other day I mentioned to Hubby about just leaving the area wild. I know, I can’t even believe it myself.

My justification is based upon an article I read about how American’s obsessions with having grass yards is helping kill off the bee population. Without flowers, the bees don’t pollinate, without pollination stuff doesn’t grow, without stuff growing, well food that feeds humans and cattle won’t grow. At least, I’m pretty sure it’s something like that. (Not as detailed and technical as my high school science class, but you get the point.)

According to BEE , this is a bumble bee.

According to Michigan State University this is a bumble bee.

Anyhoo, so my idea is to try and get the majority of weeds out of the area, and leave the flowers that are there, there, and maybe throw in some wild flower seeds and see what happens.

Or maybe I’ve just been looking at too many of Mary Hone’s photos of the wilderness and my wanderlust is showing.

A bit of the wild bee garden.

The left photo shows the yard as it really is, the middle photo is some yellow flowers and the one on the right shows the type of fencing we’ll install to keep the muncher out.

Either way, it looks like we’ll be putting a small fencing around the area to keep Delilah out. (She loves to hunt for eatables in the yard.)

It’s certainly not The Challenges of Gardening With Dogs – Are Your Plants Safe? By Jan at Wag ‘N Woof Pets, but it’s a post and right now, it’s just the best I can do.

My Silly Dog

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So this guy right here likes to go to bed almost immediately after supper.

Golden Labrador

And although I know he can hold his pee a really long time (siriusly, I think one wickedly rainy day, he held it for 20 hours), I like to make sure he goes out at least once before I head to bed.

Because of his bum leg, I hate for him to eat his supper, go to bed and then have to get up to go outside, so I’ve been trying to make sure he goes out almost immediately after he eats.

On days that we struggle to get him out to pee, Hubby will take him out front.

Sampson loves to sit out front and just watch the world go by. Before he injured his leg, he used to go out front with Hubby all the time, but since his injury, his time out front and off-leash has been very limited.

Last week, there were a couple of days in a row where Hubby took Sampson out front to potty.

Guess what?

The little shit only wants to go out front now! The other night I took him out back and he walked over and waited at the gate to go out front.

 

Silly dog.

Seven Ways to Pissed Off – Throwback Thursday

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This post originally appeared July 8, 2013.

FTR, I was not so mad about having a poop station up at the park as I was about the overkill with the signs.

As I recall, they came down pretty quickly, so I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one hacked off about it.

Here it is as it originally appeared.

I want to live my life with a heart like a dog, loving, trusting, forgiving.  I really do.  But I’m human after-all and sometimes I fail and when I fail, I usually fail miserably.

Wednesday when we entered the park I noticed a couple of posts had been hammered into the ground.

I wonder what they’re going to put on those? I said to Hubby, A sign that says no fires and no drinking in the park that the kids will promptly pull off and probably burn?

It was a flippant remark, half in jest, half-true.  I’ve called and complained to the town about the kids smashing glass bottles, making bombs out of soda bottles and breaking off tree limbs in order to have a fire.

For the record, I haven’t complained about them smoking pot or having sex up there and leaving their used condoms in the field.

Just. For. The. Record.  I want it to be known that I’m mean, but I’m not that mean. After all I was a kid once myself.

Thursday when we pulled up to the park, I found out what the sign posts were for.

PicMonkey Collage

  • Why pick up after your pet?
  • It is being a good neighbor.
  • Vernon town ordinance 232, It’s the law.  $25 fine per occurrence.
  • It protects the environment.
  • The average sized dog dropping produces 3 Billion Fecal Coliform Bacteria.
  • Enough Said!
  • To Learn More Please Take One.

Over on the left side of the path, was a lovely new Poop Station.

IMG_5309

There’s a little sign next to this that says, “Compliments of the James Family.”

It was hot out.  I was already hot.  My temper got hot.  So hot.  I think I could have spit nails.  I went from calm and collected to seven ways to pissed off.  Why?

  1. It’s ostentatious.  A nice poop station with some basic information about waste would be fine. (Although with the nimrods that walk their dogs up there, this might really be necessary.)
  2. It shows me the folks that are focusing on poop pick up don’t have a clear idea of why there’s so much unclaimed poop. I mean, how the hell can you pick up after your dog, if you have no idea where your dog actually is?
  3. People with dogs that use this entrance to the park are few.  Not counting the people with the pugs who live four houses down and walk their pugs up there just to take a dump.  And then leave it.  My mother thinks he actually works for the town.  They need to post this information at the illegal entrance to the park, the area where at least eight different dog owners enter, some who bring their dogs in just to let them pinch a loaf. Not one of them with leashes, never mind poop bags.
  4. Poop bags and pamphlets are just one more thing the kids will take and scatter about the park.  In fact, I found about six of them out in the street yesterday when we went for our walk.
  5. Why are they focusing on dogs?  Nobody goes in and gets pissed off because the deer crapped in the field, or the horse that left a huge land mine in the middle of the trail, that I needed Carabiners and ropes to climb over.
  6. One poop station at the entrance to a park.  Maybe your dogs are trained to poop on command but mine aren’t.  They usually crank a steamer in the middle of the park. I still have to carry that stinky bag through the park.  Have I mentioned the bugs?  There are bugs in the park and guess what?  They like the smell of poop. 
  7. Signs and poop bags are nice, but they don’t compare to two feet patrolling the park and actually ticketing people for letting their dogs drop ass wherever they want.  If you want to put a stop to the problem you actually need to start ticketing people.

I’ve calmed down some since the initial viewing, which is a good thing.  As I’m about to call the town and state my case and it’s always better if I do this when I’m wagging my tail instead of growling and snarling.

What pisses you off about where you walk your dog?  Are there any situations where the powers in charge don’t seem to really have a grasp about the issue?

For the record, I did not end up calling the town. Cooler heads prevailed.  The poop station is a great addition to the park. While I typically carry my own bags; there have been occasions when I’ve needed to take a bag or two. It’s also super nice to walk your dogs and not have to bring the bags home to stink up the garbage can. 

I’m loving Throwback Thursday, were you around for this post, or is this new to you?

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