Strollers vs. safety, convenience, public health and the environment

For the past few weeks, the street I live on has been undergoing major "improvements" to slow traffic and supposedly make the street more hospitable for pedestrians.  

There is a new traffic circle at the intersection of my street with a tiny, dead-end street that ends at the neighborhood mulch pile. 

There are new sidewalks and sidewalk extensions that create a one-way street at some points. This is all in addition to the three 5 mph speed bumps that were already there, which are so sharp that they would make the stuff in my bike basket fly out if I went over them at a reasonable rate of speed. 

My street is not a major street, and traffic on it is sparse enough that I have always just walked in the street, dogs and all, on our daily walks. 




























But I guess this was not a viable option for people pushing strollers. The city ripped out  the sidewalk plot that I had planted with lilies last summer, to widen the sidewalk from 4 feet to 5. I am not sure which strollers are greater than 4 feet wide, but then, I am not an expert in such things. 

Although they do slow down traffic, I am of the opinion that traffic circles are dangerous, confusing, and increase emissions. Sharp speed bumps destroy your car's suspension and also increase emissions. It would have been nice to have some notice that my little "devil's strip" was going to be ripped out to accommodate the strollers, rather than hearing it from the nice road worker dude who happened to catch me in time to warn me so I could transplant my lilies. 

I recognize that this is not a clear-cut issue. That streets made for pedestrians, with slower, more sparse vehicle traffic, with neighbors who walk with their families and interact with each other, are things that I support and things that are compatible with the world I would like to see. So why does this "road improvement" project irk me so much?

I think it's because of what it says about the power of the Mommy Lobby. What if all the dog walkers lobbied for the city to install treat dispensing stations every few blocks, so those of us with reactive dogs are never caught empty handed? Can we have a dog park, off-leash for those who want it and with designated areas for on-leash walking for the rest of us, where we never have to fend off endless pleas of "can I pet your dog?" when we are trying to mind our own business and just manage our dogs as we try to get past careening skateboarders, soccer players, scooter drivers and their parents? 

I guess what I'm really trying to say is, why are we dog people continually marginalized when we are the ones who save lives and try to make the planet better for other species, and we are not the ones who bring into the world a source of 9,441 metric tons of CO2 emissions who will destroy wildlife habitat foul clean water supplies and ultimately lay waste to the planet?

Where's MY $200,000 neighborhood improvement project?

Fozzie, where's YOUR tax deduction?

Eat your (Dumpster-Fresh) Veggies!

I've been really impressed by all my blog friends who home cook for their dogs. Delicious meals of fresh animal products, veggies, grains (or no grains), fruits--it just seems like the right thing to do!

So I've tried to do it myself, and somehow the trip to the meat counter always discourages me. Looking at all those sad packages of chickens and cows, I just feel terrible buying them even if they are for the good of my own animals and even though I know that cans of dog food are the same stuff, only more processed.

A successful trip to the dumpster solves that whole moral dilemma. What every dumpster-diver knows, and many NPR listeners now know, is that expiration dates are determined based not on safety, but on appearance. 

The date at which something becomes unsafe to consume is significantly later than the date at which it starts to look slightly past its prime, with the result that we throw away nearly 40% of our food in the U.S.--a large percentage of which is food that gets thrown away in stores. That's in the vicinity of 55 million metric tons or $165 billion worth of food. 

When I lived in Portland, I ate a lot of food from the dumpster and my diet was varied, tasty, and high-quality. My dumpster diet plan consisted of things that I would never have thought of purchasing in the store because they were unusual (Japanese frozen custard), seemed frivolous (Wasabi peas) or were out of my budget (organic sundried tomatoes). Lamar found that he loved Southwest-style chicken salad, lettuce and all, which we would never have discovered had we not found them, fresh and in abundance, in the trash.

My kitchen was filled with orchids, and a few of those orchids I liberated from the dumpster in 2003 are still blooming in my mom's dining room.

Now that my economic circumstances are different and I live with someone who loves to shop, I still turn the profligate wastefulness of big stores to my pets' advantage, and that of my local animal shelter. 

I seldom purchase dry dog food, and my dogs and foster dogs enjoy an amazing variety of foods whose packaging was slightly damaged by rodents or a box cutter.  









With our latest score, my dogs are even enjoying those home-cooked meals I always wanted to make for them. One of the things that's so impressed me about my fellow bloggers who cook for their dogs is the quantity of vegetables their dogs consume. 

It just so happened that the latest trip to the dumpster yielded about a dozen packages of raw "Asian Stir Fry" veggies. I cooked them up, along with some of the frozen fish that was thrown away in truly staggering quantities, but found that most of those perfect baby carrots and snap peas were rejected by my discerning canines. 











Into the Vita-Mix they went, along with a bit of that fish and a dollop of slightly-past-expiration milk. 










The result was a yummy doggie smoothie that even my picky canines loved.

I've wanted to write a dumpster post for a while but hesitated because I feared it might make me sound a bit, you know...odd. 

But my excitement over making a nutritious, veggie-packed meal from scratch for Fozzie and Lamar, and watching their little tongues lap it up so eagerly, was just too much for me to contain. 



I encourage everyone to check out your local Petsmart, Trader Joes, and other stores for the bounty that will otherwise molder in a landfill!

Happy Fourth of July!

Whether you look with some cynicism on this day we celebrate the birth of our nation--this nation that is among the last developed nations to embrace capital punishment, that ranks 37th in a World Health Organization ranking of health care systems (below Columbia and Malta), 

this nation where we are actually still debating whether the use of birth control is acceptable, where the inexorable rightward shift of the past few decades has got us carrying guns in national parks and allowing unprecedented amounts of corporate money to flow toward whichever political candidate pledges to most generously reward the investment--

or whether you see something still to celebrate in America's vast open spaces that enjoy at least some degree of protection, in the highly politicized Supreme Court's upholding of Obamacare, which represents a small step toward the health care sanity that prevails in most other industrialized nations, in the growing number of Americans who are waking up to the scientific consensus that global warming is upon us,

enjoy your day off! Use the day to celebrate with friends, enjoy some healthy, rich, all-American barbecued tempeh or fried tofu in peanut sauce, and give your pups some extra love and a safe place to ride out the explosions. 

If your dog is afraid of fireworks, take a look at the helpful suggestions at fearfuldogs.com for getting through the day. Remember, there is no harm in comforting a scared dog. If your dog is afraid of loud noises, make sure she has a safe, comforting space where she can be while the fireworks go on. Try using a Thundershirt or anxiety wrap, some TTouch, and ask her for tricks and other enjoyable behaviors if she is calm enough to do them. 

And if you are one of those most patriotic of Americans who believes that constructive dissent is at the very foundation of our country, don't be afraid to show your independence by rocking the boat a bit!

There goes the neighborhood

When I was looking for a house 4 1/2 years ago, my dream was to find a place where I could bike to work in the heart of Washington DC but still live surrounded by trees, woods, nature, and wildlife. 

I found my house. It was bounded on the back by woods and on one side by an empty lot, which was split off from my house's property and put on the market separately by my house's previous owners.

The lot next door

My house is perfect. I've lived there all these years with my eccentric nudist Swiss dude and my succession of poorly trained, impulsive, loud foster dogs of widely varying dispositions, and no one has ever said a peep. Most of my neighbors are far enough away that they're not bothered by my menagerie, and the ones who are close are for the most part mellow, friendly animal lovers.

Among my greatest joys is the sanctuary and wildness, not to mention privacy, of my backyard, where I can garden, train dogs, sunbathe, and make noise in any state of dress or undress without fear of judgement or of imposing on neighbors who may have different values and interests. 

The property next door has been on the market all these years, and no one has bought it because it is narrow, steep, has several large trees that can't be removed per Takoma Park's tree regulations, and sports a cool asking price of $240,000.

Help!

Now, some people are looking at the property. They came over to talk to me when I was in the back with Fozzie the other day, planting an azalea and some blackberries. 

In the course of the conversation I realized that Our Worst Nightmare has a possibility of being realized in the property next door. 

No, the prospective buyer did not want to build a meth lab, a crack house, a brothel, or an adult video emporium. 


It's worse, way worse. 


The woman who spoke to me, who came with her two toddlers in tow, one of whom kept sticking her hands through my fence and ran away screaming when Fozzie barked once at the intrusion, wants to build a daycare. 

Not to be mean or to give the impression that I don't love kids, but I can't imagine anything more horrifying.

Anything more destructive to the peace and sanctuary of this little pocket of wildness, than the screams of dozens of little darlings as they scamper amok through these formerly wildlife-rich woods, or the disapproving glares of Takoma Park soccer moms every time I foster a new poorly socialized fireball, or fail to stop Fozzie from barreling into the backyard after a squirrel like a raging tornado of poor impulse control, or every time Florian steps onto the back porch for a smoke clad only in his dance belt.  


The good news is that the realtor says any proposed development of a commercial property would require special permits and hearings at which neighbors would be able to testify.



And while I welcome that opportunity, I also fear that the powers that be will not look sympathetically upon a pit bull rescuer and naked Swiss guy going up against people who are of course doing it all for the children. 


So in the hopes of obviating the need for me to testify, I'm considering various tactics for convincing the prospective buyers that they really don't want to put a daycare on that lot. Here are a few ideas:

• Explosives. Imagine Florian and his son Quentin's delight when I lift the restrictions on rockets, firecrackers, and small thermonuclear devices in the back yard. Wildlife might not like it in the short term, but they'll thank me when buyers beat a hasty retreat.
  
• Ditch the positive training, at least when people are looking at the property. Adopt a communication style with dogs and partner that relies heavily on confrontation and loud expletives.
  
• Scrap metal, and old cars, left to molder, randomly scattered on sidewalk in front of my property and one next door.
  
• More nudity.

What are YOUR favorite ideas for scaring off prospective buyers?