Putting an animal down.

[Phoebe]

They say that's why farmers used to have so many kids. Lots of puppies on the land.

[Tahlvin]

[rant]And if you're going to have a pet, for heaven's sake, clean up after it and be respectful of your neighbors!

We had an upscale apartment building go in a few blocks from our house a couple years ago, and they allow pets. There's an empty lot across the street from the apartment building that's technically part of a city park. For the first six months or so after the apartments opened, the pet owners in the building would take their dogs into that lot and let them shit all over and not bother picking it up. The city finally put up signs warning pet owners to clean up after their pets and keep the pets to the sidewalks, so problem went away for the most part.

But there's one dog owner in the apartment building that insists on just letting their small dog outside their first-floor apartment on a tether. That leaves the animal with just the sidewalk and about 18 inches of grass between the sidewalk and the street, on which to do its business. Having nowhere else to really go, the dog shits on the sidewalk right outside this upscale apartment building, and the dog's owner never picks it up when they let the dog back inside. It generally stays there until someone else picks it up, or it has been stepped on so many times it's been ground into dust and washed away by the rain. And having seen the dog's owner, this is not someone who appears to be suffering from any sort of physical handicap that would prevent them bending over to pick up a pile of dog shit.

[/rant]

[Phoebe]

I live in Trumpistan USA, land of freedom and personal responsibility and family values and choose life, plus hostility toward any form of public generosity towards other human beings who have less. (Really appreciate election season because it allows me to identify the two other people in the entire neighborhood who are willing to vote for a Democrat).

Anyway, much to my surprise the values of the residents of Trumpistan are to let your dog s*** everywhere and not clean up after it. They're all scared of my dog though, and my tiny elderly mother who will bang on the window and shout at them if they let their dog poop in my front yard while she sees it. Lol, there's a great satisfaction in letting elderly women loose on the offenders. They don't have any patience for your nonsense.

[Ronster]

[Phoebe]

[Ronster]

[bralbovsky]

Coming back into this late, but several notes:

Opossums get a bad rap because they are plain. They are among the least likely animals to either fight with your pet or spread rabies. On the other hand, they eat ticks and other things we dislike. Pick on skunks, foxes, raccoons if you must. They all have cute cartoon avatars.

Domestication is always a two way process. I don't mean enslavement, but domestication. It perhaps gave our prehistoric edge over other strains of mankind, but the strength of pack behavior and mentality is sadly, at least in my observation, more destructive than useful. It's a fact of our lives and psyches, but that doesn't mean I can't consider what might have happened if we met some other brethren. Doubtless some differently wrecked destiny.

Care for a pet is of course measured on a sliding scale. If you are hot and your pet is hot, but not perilously so, no foul. If you are coolly sipping a mojito and your pet is in a hot car, you are neglectful. Having said that I am fundamentally opposed to ownership doesn't carve out an exception for pampered pets. A gilded cage....

The trumpistan behavior surprises me not in the least. Adherents need not follow rules, they are privileged to be above them. Rules of charity and forgiveness and patience and responsibility and honesty are only for others to follow. This applies equally to their pets.

[Phoebe]

[Ronster]

[Phoebe]

[Phoebe]

I feel like human doctors should figure out what could be determined by doing a fecal exam and then we should all do that too. It's just such a remarkable signal of what's going on with certain aspects of your innards.

Another note: this dog is the glowing picture of shiny health, and a regular part of his diet is insects and what we might generously call "found water". Interesting. He learned to forage as a pup.