Tag Archives: dog poop

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Unexpected praises…

First off, welcome to my new travel blog. Yesterday afternoon, I suddenly decided it was time to move my old blog to this space. I have a number of reasons for making that decision. The main one, though, is that WordPress is more secure, less wonky, and more professional. It does cost money to use this blogging platform, but I decided my blog was worth $100 a year. So I took the plunge. One thing I like less about this platform is that it’s not as easy to search as my old blog is. On the other hand, maybe that’s a positive.

I made the Blogger platform private for a few reasons. I could have simply left it that way and just written for invited readers, but Bill and I are about to go to Scotland for another whisky cruise and I wanted to be able to write about that. I know there are people who are genuinely just interested in reading, don’t necessarily want to “join the club”, and I don’t feel like they should be left out simply because a few people are trying to cause trouble for me.

I have been thinking about making this switch for awhile. Recent events forced my hand. Some people seem to think I’m interested in being popular. I’m not… I just want to be able to write in peace, whether I have one reader or thousands.

So… on to today’s anecdote. It’s about shit, so brace yourself.

Baking in the sun…

Yesterday, I decided to take a break from creating the new travel blog. The dogs needed a walk. So I put on some shorts and a t-shirt, got them on a leash, and made sure to pull out a few shit bags for whatever they happened to drop on the way.

I recently changed my walking routine, mainly because where I had been walking is now a major construction site. Our neighborhood Rewe is expanding. I used to be able to cut easily past it, but now there’s a fence. If I go to the other side of the store, I have to walk through really tall grass, where we’ve found some unpleasant remnants of other people’s visits. For instance, a few months ago, I saw what appeared to be human feces. What made it distinctive from dog poo were the dirty napkins scattered nearby. I may be kind of gross sometimes, but that sight really disgusted me. And when you have dogs who want to eat everything, it’s even more disgusting.

A few years ago, I wrote about how when people walk their dogs, they sometimes “shit and run”. Although Germans can be very fastidious when it comes to their own home and environs, they aren’t always so good about picking up dog crap… or horse crap, though that’s not so easy.

It’s only natural that people don’t want to deal with dog droppings. They don’t smell good and disposing of them can be messy and inconvenient. I don’t enjoy doing it, either. I will even admit that if we’re in a place where people aren’t typically walking, I sometimes “shit and run”, too. However, I am very careful to bring bags with me when I walk the dogs and I always pick up poop if we’re anywhere near civilization. I’m hyper-sensitive to being yelled at, and Germans often have no qualms about doing that. Since I’d rather not have someone telling me off in a language I don’t understand that well, I do my best to avoid those confrontations by following the rules. Also, I empathize with those who step in crap. No one likes it.

Anyway… Zane and Arran and I were walking through this area near a big field, where Bill once found a dildo. The upper part of it is also where I found the pile of suspicious poo. Down on the other side of the field, people have locked gardens and there’s a farmer who grows stuff. As we were about to pass his storage shed, Arran crouched down to take a dump.

I already had a somewhat full bag, but I bent over to pick up his poop. As I was cleaning it up, a shirtless old German man drove up in his truck. He sat there and observed me for a moment, which made me nervous. When he got out of the truck and approached, I was actually afraid he was going to start yelling at me because Arran had pooped next to his woodpile. I was trying to hang onto the dogs while I awkwardly picked it up.

I stammered in my shitty German that I only speak a little bit of German. Then I realized he had an utterly amazed look on his face. He said in German that people were always leaving poop by his woodpile. He pointed to it for emphasis. And he was very happy that I was cleaning up ours. I laughed and said, “Oh, I get it! Ich verstehe!”

That was an unexpectedly rewarding experience. It kind of made me proud to represent America.

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No fouling…

Okay, so maybe I won’t be posting about doggie toilets around the world.  But I think I have amassed enough obnoxious photos of signs about dog crap that I can post them in my blog.  Since I love the odd silly blog post, I figure it’s time.  So with much fanfare, I give you signs against doggie dumpage.

Barcelona offers a graphic that everyone can understand.  And they thank us in Spanish.

 

Here’s one from Puerto Rico…

 

The Scots don’t like doggie doo…

 

They provide a bin.

 

And neither do people in my own neighborhood in Germany…

 

It’s not cool in Italy, either.

 

Despite the signs, it’s not uncommon to come across nasty piles of doo doo anyway.  I bet if I kept looking, I might find more examples of how uncouth it is to not clean up after your dog.  But a lot of people don’t clean up after their dogs, anyway.

Notice how all the dogs are facing the same direction.  Some of the signs are really negative, while a couple take a more positive approach.  In Spain, they simply thank you for cleaning up your dog’s shit.  In Germany, they plead about health and safety.  In Scotland, they are really stern and threaten a big fine.  In Italy, they quote the law.  In Puerto Rico, it looks like people ignore that the bin is really for dog crap.

Maybe if I collect enough pictures of signs, I can publish a book.  It worked for these ladies…

I actually own a copy of the book above.  I bought it last time we lived here and wish I’d brought it with me this time.  What can I say?  I am very easily entertained.

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The things I see when I walk my dogs…

This morning, after a rather intensive German Duolingo session, I decided it was time to walk Zane and Arran.  I usually wait until Zane begs for a walk, but the sun was out and I was feeling very motivated.  So I got dressed, grabbed my phone, supplied myself with shit bags, and got the dogs on their leashes.  We started walking and Zane promptly dropped a load near a neighbor’s house.  While I might have been tempted to leave the pile, since so many others seem to do it, the lady of the house was outside shaking out her rugs.  Besides that, Zane went next to the sign pleading for people to clean up their dogs’ messes.  I felt guilty, so I cleaned up the mess.

Since we were so close to the poop can, I decided to go the route that passes it.  As an explanation, there’s a fork in the road on my dogwalking route.  I can go one way, past the recycling bins.  It means not having to climb a hill on the way.  Or, I can go past the dog poop can, allowing me the chance to drop off any deposits the dogs might make early on.  It means climbing two less intensive hills and going down the tough one.

Anyway, since I had a bag to drop off, I went past the poop can.  As I was about to drop off Zane’s crap, I looked down and noticed that someone had left their glasses under the can.

What the hell?

I don’t know why, but I often run across strange things when I walk the dogs.  I don’t understand why someone left their glasses under the shit can, but I’m sure there’s a story.  If only those glasses could talk!  I’m glad today it was glasses, though.  On occasion, I have also seen someone’s undergarments stashed in the treeline near the poop can.

Someone left this child’s desk and chair on the hill from hell.  It’s mystery who left it and why.  But it’s been sitting there for months and I’ve never seen anyone using it.

 

Over the summer, Bill and I were walking the dogs and we saw liquor mysteriously sitting on a bench.

Yes… this is a pretty full bottle of what appears to be Jack Daniels.  Who left it there?  And why?  

 

As I was cleaning up a second pile of poop, a stern looking local passed me.  I was suddenly glad I had two bags with me.

We kept walking, dodging a car illegally driving on the road that is supposedly meant for farm vehicles and bottle recyclers.  We finally passed a friendly old guy who had walked to the recycling bins to drop off his bottles.  I said “Good morning” to him.  He responded in kind and started saying other stuff I don’t yet understand.  So I explained in German that I am American and don’t speak German.  Then I corrected myself and said I speak a little German.  Hey, I’m getting there slowly.  If I would stop and talk to my neighbors, maybe I could say more than “Hello, I don’t speak German.”  Oh, and “Ich bin eine Banane.”  No joke.  That was an actual sentence I learned on Duolingo today.

Well, now it’s time to write a book review.   Bis bald.  😉

 

 

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Shit and run…

Apologies for the title and subject matter of this posting.  It’s just that shit has been on my mind lately.  Here in our military community, dog shit is a topic that frequently comes up on Facebook.  Lots of people have posted complaints about people not picking up after their dogs after Fido has dropped a deuce.  I can understand why people don’t like picking up dog shit.  Sometimes they aren’t prepared because they forgot to bring a bag.  Sometimes they fear it will get all over their hands and they won’t have a way to clean up.  Sometimes they are lazy.  And sometimes the smell of poo is too offensive for them, in which case one might wonder why they’d even own a dog.

I can also understand why so many people get disgusted when dog crap is left to bake in the sun.  It smells bad.  It can carry diseases.  If you step in it, you smell like shit for the rest of the day or until you can change your shoes.  Your kids might mistake it for modeling clay and make a sculpture with it.  You get the idea.

When you live in close quarters with other people, it makes good sense to clean up your dog’s crap each and every time.  It’s just plain good manners.  When you’re in a park somewhere and people aren’t around, maybe it’s easier to let things slide and carry on.  Bill and I live near a nature park where many people leave their dogs’ gifts.  But then, so do other animals like horses, deer, rabbits, and foxes.  Granted, their poop is more likely to be all natural than a dog’s poop.  But it’s still shit, right?  You have to be careful about shitting and running, though, because sometimes it can lead to violence.

Available at your local Real.

The other day, I read an astonishing story about a 32 year old woman who was walking her dog in a park in Bergisch Gladbach in North Rhine-Westphalia, a place known for being supermodel Heidi Klum’s hometown.  The dog squatted down and took a dump, which the woman neglected to clean up.  Another woman, aged 33, happen to see the woman attempt to shit and run.  She decided to confront the negligent dog walker and demand that she clean up her dog’s mess.  One thing I have noticed during my time in Germany is that if you’re doing something “wrong”, it’s very likely someone will have no qualms about pointing out the errors of your ways to you.

A shouting match ensued.  The 33 year old threw her car keys at the 32 year old (she must not have stepped up to a car with a key fob yet).  A man who was passing by intervened to separate the two women.  Then a few minutes later, the dog walker returned with a male companion and things suddenly got very physical.  Before it all ended, there were five people involved in what turned out to be a full blown fist fight.  I imagine the dog walker hadn’t had this outcome in mind when she took her dog out for his routine constitutionals.

Cheech and Chong tell us how it is.

Aside from a potential 30 euro fine for shitting and running, the people involved in the brawl may also be in trouble for fighting, which resulted in pulled hair, swollen arms, and other serious injuries.  When I read this story, I had to chuckle.  This is a country where it’s against the law to flip off people while you’re driving.  You can get a large fine for swearing at police officers.

Civility seems to be a big deal here, yet this isn’t the first time some Germans have gotten really upset over people who shit and run. A couple of months ago, people in the town of Einbeck collected 250 kilos of dog shit, bagged it up, and hung it around the neck of a statue of Till Eulenspigel, a famous German folklore jester.   The statue bore a sign that read “As a dog owner, I say ‘This is shit.'”

Indeed it is…

I haven’t seen or been involved in any shit and run incidents since I moved back to Germany, but Bill did once have a nasty altercation with a former neighbor who lived near us at Fort Belvoir.  She wasn’t happy with the job he did cleaning up after one of our dogs, so she followed him home in her ugly green custom van, parked it in the middle of the street, banged on the door, and ripped him a new one.  In the course of her tirade, she said she wanted to shoot dog owners for leaving gifts on her lawn.  She ranted about how leaving crap was a violation of regulations and threatened to call the MPs, who I am sure would have been delighted to deal with an altercation of this magnitude.

Incidentally, our dog had not crapped on her lawn, but near a curb.  And Bill had cleaned up most of it, but apparently ran out of room in the bag he was carrying.  But that didn’t matter to our dog crap crusader, who thought it was appropriate to threaten violence to a service member on a military installation.  She’s very lucky I didn’t answer the door because I would have gladly called the MPs and asked them which offense was more serious, a stray dog turd left on a curb or someone threatening violence on a military installation?  She’s also lucky Bill is a very nice guy who would never willingly yell at anyone, let alone hurt them.

Anyway, I am all for cleaning up dog shit, especially in heavily populated areas where people are walking a lot.  No one wants to see it, smell it, or step in it.  And you don’t want to get your ass kicked for leaving it, either.

Below is a device that I’ve been using for years.  It’s very handy for handling pet waste.

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Night #4 at La Quinta…

When you have pets, La Quintas are a good bet.  They offer basically comfortable accommodations and don’t charge pet fees.  Last year, when Bill and I moved to Texas, we stayed in two La Quintas.  One was a really nice place in Beaumont, Texas, clean, convenient, comfortable, and right next to a Sonic.  The other was an older, rather shitty property right next to Interstate 35.  It had a nice shower and a good bed.  Other than that, I pretty much hated it.

The one we’re in right now is kind of a mixed bag.  The staff has been very tolerant of my hounds, who have mostly been good but are prone to a lot of barking when someone knocks or a sound makes them alert.  It’s basically clean and our room is fairly comfortable.  It’s not very close to any restaurants, though, which is only a problem because Bill gave up the rental car today.  His mother is coming to get us early tomorrow morning to take us to Houston.

Our flight leaves at 3:50pm and we should be arriving in Frankfurt at about 8:30am and hopefully on the road to Stuttgart by 10:30.  We gotta get through customs because we have the dogs and they have to be examined and what not.  Should be fun, especially since we have to pay and the price is higher on Sundays.  But I figure it gets Bill to work earlier and it means we don’t have to spend another night in Texas.  The sooner we get to Germany, the sooner we can find our next house.

Anyway, this particular La Quinta kind of reminds me of a halfway house.  Obviously, a lot of people stay here because it’s near Sea World and Six Flags.  There are a lot of kids around.  But it also has the feel of temporary digs.  There’s a barbecue outside and a well attended pool and hot tub.  Having seen how many kids are out there, I decided I would not partake.  There’s probably a lot of pee in the pool and my immune system is not what it used to be.  But I am kind of impressed that there is a spa out there, given that this property is kinda low brow.  I would add pictures, but our room hasn’t been serviced since Wednesday and the pictures wouldn’t provide an accurate picture of what it looked like when we checked in.

I don’t like the breakfast at this La Quinta.  It’s pretty cheap, with mostly fake food.  I’d rather eat at McDonald’s.  Fortunately, Bill’s mom gave us breakfast this morning and let us use her washer and dryer.  We have been very lucky to have her.  She’s making this move to Germany a lot easier for us.

Bill is sitting at the desk in our room, swearing at the VA.  He cracks me up.

The dogs have enjoyed the trash littered field next to the hotel.  There’s lots to sniff out there… and lots of poop that hasn’t been cleaned up.

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