3055 Of dogs, poop, and dirt.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

"Those that flee temptation generally leave a forwarding address...."

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There's a local guy whose blog I read. I don't know him personally, just found him one day while searching for information on some local event. Anyway, he's starting to really bother me.

He, his wife, two medium-large dogs, and a passel of cats live in a wooded area near county-owned land that is forested and has a stream running through it. He helps heat the house in the winter by burning wood, which he mostly gathers on land he doesn't own. That doesn't bother me too much because he doesn't cut living trees, but gathers wind-downed wood. Still, it's not his wood, and left alone would go to nourishing young trees.

He does have two habits that do annoy me. (Well, he has many habits that annoy me, but these two affect others besides him, so they bug me more.)

He takes the dogs with him everywhere, off leash, to people's homes, to outdoor cafes, yard sales, everywhere, and seems to think everyone should be fine with that - which might be ok except that the dogs are not particularly well-behaved. They're "safe", in that they wouldn't so much as growl at anyone or other animals, and they don't usually wander far out of sight of him, but not everyone is relaxed around biggish dogs. Worse, they very well might piddle or poop on your carpet, and their owner thinks you should be fine with that and leaves it for you to clean up. I find his attitude very annoying.

Second, the county often dumps topsoil, gravel, or sand in areas around the stream for erosion control, flood control, and to make the little beach area more pleasant. Whenever this guy needs fill, he goes to those areas and takes what he wants. He seems to think it's there for his use. That royally pisses me off. Does he not care why the fill is there? Does he not care that we paid for it? It's not as free as he seems to think it is.

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The above reminded me of an incident with Ex#2's mother. I've mentioned that she hated me and used every possible passive-aggressive way to demonstrate her feelings.

Ex#2 had to go "home" for every holiday, and I was not allowed to beg off. Sometimes we took my dog along. She was a medium-sized black Australian Kelpie, and very well behaved. Ex#2's mother had a small terrier.

One time when we were visiting and had brought the dog along, arriving that morning, dear MIL came to me in the evening all in a huff and accused my dog of having pooped behind the couch (which was at an angle across a corner). She had been watching television and smelled it, and tracked it down to behind the couch. She took me to the room and had me kneel on the couch, and look at the evidence.

Yep. There was poop in the corner behind the couch. BUT, the poop was covered with white fungus, which indicated that it had been there several days. And the space between the corners of the couch and the wall were much too small for my dog to have gotten through. Her dog could have gotten through easily. Third, my dog had been beside me all day, and neither of us had been in that room. I pointed that all out, and she furiously informed me that her little darling was much too good to have done it. Therefore it must have been my dog.

Ex#2 wouldn't stand up for me. He told me to just clean it up. I think that was the first hint of no future with him.
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