A problem with summery weather

[urbpan]

Just as the weather demands that I take Charlie swimming, or be guilty of animal abuse, I find the opportunities for doing so drying up, if you'll pardon the expression.

First of all, the beaches are verboten for dogs from May to September. Fine, keep your poisonous salt water, you bums.

Charlie's favorite place to swim is Ward's Pond, which is walking distance from the house, relatively clean and conveniently close to where Maggie has dog school. Unfortunately, the past two Saturday's it's been infested with weirdos holding sticks with string on them in the water. They take up all the good Charlie launch pads, and the ends of their strings have sharp metal hooks which have a worrying tendency to embed themselves in animal flesh. So this week, instead of going there in vain hope, dashing Charlie's expectations, I decided to take him on a field trip.

The obvious place is Callahan State Park, but on a day like today it will be so full of dogs that the chance for Charlie to be involved in a dog aggression incident is raised from vanishingly slight up to near certainty, and I'd rather not risk it. Then there's the Charles River, but it's not always safe to let him swim there, and it's never legal. It's not even legal for him to be unmuzzled, never mind unleashed, in Boston, because he resembles a pit bull so much. (When will the prejudice against Yorkshire terrier/German shepherd mixes end?)

So I looked on a 'Boston dog friendly park' website which had a little googlemap with markers on it, and found Centennial park in the wealthy suburb of Wellesley. It seemed to have some woods, some fields, and a pond--perfect! Plus I figured any locals would be on Nantucket or in traffic on the way to the Cape. Alexis offered the use of Ken, her gps robot, but I had my directions written in pen on an envelope, so I took my own car without any robots.

Then I wasted a couple gallons of gas driving in crazy spirals around Wellesley. Twice I was on streets that ran parallel to the park, but I never saw a sign for the park, a parking area, or even a place to pull over. I found a series of ballfields elsewhere in the town, and took Charlie for a short walk, but no swimming.

Feeling dejected, and like I had disappointed my dog, I decided to go back to the park where Alexis and Maggie were. But there was some huge event going on, with booths and cops directing traffic, and all the parking lots and on-street parking completely taken up. This is the problem with summery weather: other people are out there enjoying it too. I hate that. Where were all these people in the dead of winter, watching tv? The outside exists year-round, and since I'm a dog owner, I have to go out in it.

This is why I especially hate the cold--I can't avoid it. We also wonder where all the dog owners are in bad weather, when we're out in it. True, the only people we see are other dog owners and mentally deranged joggers, but on a nice day, suddenly there are ten times as many dog owners? What do they do in snowstorms, let them shit inside?

Ah, well, the lessons to be learned are: Do better research; Have a plan B and C ready to go; if possible, bring a directions-finding robot; be prepared to drive more.

Comments

[buboniclou.livejournal.com]

You could get a kiddie pool and put it on the porch/yard/whatever. He wouldn't be able to swim, but he could at least chill out.

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

we don't really have the space to do that, unfortunately.

[harrietbrown.livejournal.com]

People. They ruin everything.

[donnad.livejournal.com]

What do they do in snowstorms, let them shit inside?

Well, if they are my neighbors they let them shit right outside the front door and in front of my front windows and porch. And then they leave it there until spring, in huge piles, so that it rots the grass. And then in spring they don't clean it up until the neighbors complain and the landlord has to step in. The nice lush lawn we had last summer is gone and replaced with brown patches where the dog left his deposits.

Yes, I complained to the landlord because our neighbors dogs were shitting right outside my front window/door and they weren't cleaning it up. If they didn't clean it up I was planning on raking it all into a pile and with a shovel, depositing it on their front porch.

I have nothing against the dogs mind you, it's the irresponsible owners that don't clean up after them that I want to throttle.

[harrietbrown.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is so rude and inconsiderate on so many levels. Can you report them to the Board of Health or Dept. of Health or something? Like here in NYC, if someone leaves big piles of dog doo on the street, we can report it to 311, because there's the pooper-scooper law. Maybe there's something similar in your area. At the least, it's a health hazard.

[donnad.livejournal.com]

I spoke to the landlord. He had something to say to them about cleaning it up. Now they tie the dogs out the side of their yard so he can't get to the front yard. I don't know whether they clean up on their side, it's their side and if they want to look at dog crap that's their choice and it's between them and the landlord. All I care about is not having to dodge it when I go out my front door and see it when I look out my front windows.

We live in a two family house, we have one side, the neighbors with the dogs have the other. What concerns me is that if they don't clean up after the dogs or if they let the dogs damage the apartment, will the landlord adopt a no pets policy in the future.

I am not a dog person, I don't dislike dogs, I just don't seek them out. I have five cats, three indoor and two ferals/outdoor I take care of and am working to socialize that live under my back porch.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

At least you know who's responsible. There's tons of it in the parks that we walk around in, and if we knew who left it there we'd pick it up and put it in their mailboxes.

[roaming.livejournal.com]

Check out Menotomy Rocks Park here in Arlington. It's not as big as any of those, but less "public" in that only locals use it, and they walk their dogs. There's also an area where they tend to let their dogs off leash to cavort. There's trails up hills into the trees. (Caution: in one area at the very top the teenagers like to build fires and drink illegal beers, and then they smash the bottles. A local volunteer group regularly cleans up, but sometimes misses the glass shards.) Gee, suddenly doesn't sound so good, huh? But it's lovely, and enough for me, and it's got a pond, and so far I haven't seen it crowed. But then maybe I don't go during times when it's like to be, i.e., noon-4 on a weekend, I tend to do my walking just before dusk.

Rt 2 past Alewife in Cambridge, to Exit 58 in Arlington, take a Right on Highland Avenue (my street!); next set of lights take a right on Gray Street; go to the next STOP sign at Jason Street, Take a right, park's on the right, you can't miss it.

Or just come all the way up Massachusetts Avenue from Cambridge to Arlington -- a straight shot, but menotonous and full of traffic and stop lights -- past Arlington Center, and when you see the High School on the right, the next left at the lights will be Jason Street. Just go all the way up Jason until you reach the park on your right. You'll see a clear area behind a fence, and a pond.

[harrietbrown.livejournal.com]

That would be unfortunate if the landlord adopted a no pets policy because of the actions (inaction?) of your neighbors.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

What do they do in snowstorms, let them shit inside?

Where I live, the people who only walk their dogs on summer weekends are the lucky bastards with yards. Which still baffles me; when I lived with Spike in a house with a yard we still spent an hour a day in the park. The only real difference was he could go and have a crap without having to wait for me to get dressed.

(Also, I have snowstorm envy. UGH SUMMER.)

[belen1974.livejournal.com]

i hope to to there this evening with jim! do you know where the off leash dog cavorting area is?

[roaming.livejournal.com]

It's officially not allowed by the "Friends of Menotomy" organizers. And I suppose there is a legal lease law in general. But people do it anyway, and unless someone raises a ruckus, so far so good.

It's to the left and the back. You go in the front, walk past the pond, and if you look to the left there are swings and grills. It's generally there. (It used to be in the ver front to the right, but now they've cordoned it off to let the grass regrow.)

[ssorca19.livejournal.com]

i guess im one of those dog owners you're complaining about. I've got a small yard, which is more than enough to give my small dogs plenty of excersise, buty when its nice out, we (i) like to go to the park, or sometimes just around the neighborhood. I dont walk them when its cold or rainy cuz im lazy and i dont have to.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

God willing we'll have a fenced-in yard some day, too.

[bellelvsbeast.livejournal.com]

OOOH get a little pool for the backyard...we are doing the for the girls!!! :) And my snake and lizard too when they want to use it...
OH an you better take Charlie to a park, don't make me come over there and investigate you, animal abuser...:P
MWAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA