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| Argentine Dogo |
MIAMI BEACH IS A DOGS’ WORLD
Many residents behave like dogs
8 April 2018
By David Arthur Walters
THE MIAMI MIRROR
Now it has been almost three years since the public was treated to my widely read report on the rampant violations of the local dog ordinance on the beach and in South Pointe Park, entitled, Miami Beach Has Gone to the Dogs - Mayoral Campaign Promotes Unsanitary Beaches.
There have been considerable improvements since then, at least in the park. I do not know about the beach because I no longer walk on the beach. I do not wish to contend there with the bacteria left not only by dogs but by the traffic of hundreds of thousands of people from all parts of the world, some of whom are not very sanitary in their habits.
Lately there are fewer dogs running loose in the park and fouling the grass for kids and adults to wallow in. The unenclosed dog park by the fake lighthouse has been completed and is well used. I like to watch the dogs play there from time to time, and most entertaining of all is to watch owners chase dogs that escape through the bushes on the perimeter. Of course there are the usual scofflaws who could care less about ordinances, let their dogs run off leash at will, and do not scoop up after them. The new Park Rangers kindly educate the scofflaws time and time again in hopes they will voluntarily comply with the ordinance.
This morning I did not see a Ranger come by. A little song bird was hopping up and down and singing on the top of the lighthouse in vain for an hour. An exercise group of young Hispanic females led by a bellowing trainer arrived as usual to walk on all fours like animals and perform other exercises. Their buttocks and abdomens were admirably molded with the exception of two weighty newcomers who lagged behind and had to be especially encouraged by their Sunday drill sergeant.
Fabulous yachts paraded along Government Cut in front of the multimillion-dollar condos of exclusive Fisher Island as Jet Skis buzzed up and down the channel like mad at high speed. Surely, I thought, the goal of life is to play, to have fun, that is, if you can afford it, maybe by working like a dog all week if you are not a lucky dog. Wait a minute, do dogs really work hard? The top dogs have it made, for sure, and the rest get free food and lodging if they do not stray. Yes, there are hard working exceptions like sled dogs and police dogs, but it might be more appropriate to say a hard worker works like a workhorse.
A couple got off their bikes with their cute little dog and darling little girl, and let them romp around on the grass. She was wearing a dress but no diaper. They both took dumps on the grass as the parents chatted. The father eventually scooped up the dog waste, and did not see what the precious girl had done. Like father like daughter: she got the scoop and fiddled around with her remains, then ran towards him. He picked her up, turned her upside down, swung her around much to her amazement and glee, and then, after wiping her rear, they were all off on the bikes, pooper scooper and all, including, I noticed, approvingly, a helmet for the kid.
And then came a few people without kids but with dogs in baby strollers and baby carriages, including that attractive woman I often see with the happy little white dog. She said “Good Morning” to me as she jogged by pushing the carriage. The morning was instantly better.
Dogs, dogs and more dogs passed by. There are so many dogs around lately that I think South Beach is becoming a dog’s world. People have different attitudes towards dogs. A friend of mine who loves dogs, and likes to take care of her daughter’s three dogs, asked me to stop calling dogs, “dogs,” because that is rude, and to call them “pets” instead.
My father, a cavalry man who loved horses because they were useful, thought people were too infatuated with dogs, and dogs should be rounded up, canned, and sent to Africa to feed starving people.
I myself liked to read wild dog stories. I was afraid of a Great Dane that followed me home from First Grade, causing me to run into the store and read comic books until he went away.
Why, a huge dog, and Argentine Dogo, jumped on me outside a restaurant at Fifth and Washington just last week, wounding my arm, so I thought I had been bitten, but on second look it was a scratch from its paws; she was just being friendly, and I had smiled and cocked my head at her.
I was acquainted with Filipinos in Hawaii who liked to eat dogs. An Asian man said it was common to kill a dog to feed a visitor in his hometown. A soldier told me his attitude towards dogs changed when he saw dogs eating human corpses where dogs were not allowed into homes. I wondered if I would eat a dog or a human or even a cow if I were starving.
Even my Facebook feed is becoming a dog’s world. Few and far between are images of dancers, and many are the posts from dog lovers clubs, or, rather, animal lovers groups. All animals are precious now, it seems, and should be allowed on airplanes because a growing number of humans, who are supposed to be rational, feel a need to get in touch with their inner animal by having a pet.
Even a rat or a big Palmetto bug would do if you were doing life in solitary confinement. Just having an animal around is comforting, more comforting than a spouse or a friend or any other human being for that matter. Maybe my dad, whose ashes were distributed over Government Cut near the fake lighthouse, has a black stallion in heaven with him.
I opened at random the book I usually read on Sundays, an introduction to Western philosophy. What kinds of freedom do we have, if there is such a thing instead of determinism? Sartre thought we were condemned to freedom because we can choose how to respond to events, including choosing to do nothing. At least mentally competent adults can choose to commit suicide or flee instead of waging war, and so on.
The page I landed on happened to be headed ‘Perverse Freedom,’ meaning the freedom of being capricious, of doing anything one likes at the moment, instead of acting according to other people’s preferences and rules.
Freedom as we usually conceive it is due to a certain reasonable, agreed upon social order, but perverse freedom is independent of the society’s demand that we act reasonably according to what society deems reasonable. Our free-wheeling pervert has no motive to do one thing or the other, unless his motive is zlost, a Russian word that means spite, contrariness, whim, fancy, caprice. He was characterized in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Under the Floorboards (underground). The perspective of this pervert is that of an animal, a rat!
Maybe this is what is happening to our society, I conjectured as I peeled an orange. Maybe human animals feel so constrained by all the rational rules and the warring ideologies that preach individual freedom that they have become alienated from their animal nature and are secretly looking up like rats under the corporate boards from where they long to act instinctively again.
Perhaps people love dogs more than the other animals because they want to become dogs instead of rats, maybe dogs well-fed by the welfare state if not wild republican dogs who want to starve liberal dogs who create more rules every day to be liberated from. However that may be, the closer a humble dog can get his nose into the business of top dogs the better. Politics is the distribution of the absolute power that people worship. Political success has more to do with whom you know than what you know. Oh, rats! How humiliating!
Hmm, that reminded me of Li Ssu, a lowly born man who became First Grand Councilor of China after observing the behavior of rats. According to the Shih Chi (Historical Records) of Ssu-ma (145-86 BCE), when Li Ssu was a petty district clerk in Ch’u, he observed that the rats eating filth in the toilet room were afraid of man and dog; but the rats that lived in the side-galleries ate wholesome grain from the granary were not afraid of man and dog; whereupon he remarked to himself, “A man’s ability or non-ability is similar to these rats. It merely depends upon where he places himself.”
That is sage advice, yet is easier said than done. What we have here is a rat race. Better to be a pet dog with a kind master than a rat looking up through the cracks in the floorboards, even with an ample supply of grain.
It was with that thought in mind that I arose and walked to the Publix. There were many queer looking people on Fifth Street, where I was nearly struck by a car making an illegal turn. The traffic was horrendous. I remembered it was Gay Pride Day, and thought of the amusing response a gay friend of mine had given me to a question when I said it was hard being straight in South Beach because homophobes sometimes shouted “faggot” at me on the street no matter how mean I tried to look.
“Don’t you get upset when people call you a faggot?” I asked.
“No, not at all, because that is what I am,” he said.
I waited patiently for a line of cars to make a right turn until the Walk signal and no right turn signal came on. An impatient driver of a SUV who did not make the light looked at me, turned right in front of me and stopped in the pedestrian walkway, so I had to walk out into the traffic to cross the street. I gave him an irritated look. He rolled down his window.
“What’s your problem?”
“You saw me then you ran the light and blocked the pedestrian crossing.”
“So what are you going to do about it? Are you a cop?”
“Is it all right to violate laws if no cops are around?”
“Good luck, asshole!” he said as I walked away.
No big thing really as that sort of behavior is par for the course in South Beach, and in Florida as well from what I see in the newspapers, the Florida has the rudest and most dangerous drivers in the nation.
I got a few things at the Publix. I almost tripped over a dog in one aisle, and I noticed a dog doing his thing in a shopping cart.
Dogs are allowed in South Beach stores because business is wanted, so it is assumed they are “comfort dogs,” no questions asked. Although it is a crime to claim that your pet is a service dog, it can be a crime to interfere with a disabled person with a service dog, say, by demanding certification in a jurisdiction where none is required.
Federal and local laws apply. Localities may only make exceptions as to outside areas of establishments. Miniature horses are no longer qualified as service animals--only dogs qualify. Service animals must be trained to serve mentally and physically disabled persons. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional supported are definitely not qualified. Law-abiding people do not bring their pet dogs to food establishments, or they tie them up in front of the restaurants and grocery stores. The so-called comfort dogs distract seeing-eye dogs from their duties, leaving the blind in the lurch. People who bring their pets into stores because the rules are not enforced are disrespectful people.
I saw a dog fight between three off-leash dogs at Whole Foods the other day. The customers fight too, sometimes, and the police have to be called if one is not on duty at the store. The aisles are narrow and usually very crowded with yuppies who do not mind being gouged. They have no consideration for others, blocking the aisles and intersections with their bodies and carts. The chief of police was shopping there one day as dogs were running around in the store, and I was tempted to ask him who enforces the state law prohibiting dogs, but he was having an interesting conversation on his cell phone about the new regime and his pension so I listened in. People love to talk loudly about their private business on cell phones.
Forget Whole Foods. Many residents have stopped shopping there, and Whole Foods does not need their business.
Some of the aisles were recently narrowed at the Publix on Sixth Street, by the way, and the placement of goods switched around in a confusing manner. I really did not need anything there this morning. I figured it would be nice to have a cold beer since I had enjoyed the one I had last month. I arrived at the customer service stand with a big can of Corona I selected because a recovering alcoholic told me not to get Heinekens because it will give you a headache.
A manager was at the customer service counter usual, with two clerk-cashiers. A woman with her handsome son was in front of me. The boy had a dog. He put it on the checkout counter.
“Young man,” I said in a kindly tone, “dogs are not supposed to be up there because people put their food there.”
He smiled and took the dog down.
“Mind your own business!” snarled his mother.
“It is everyone’s business that dogs not be put on the checkout counters,” I said.
“Don’t talk to me or I will call the police" she growled. "You are a rude man!”
“I am talking to you, and you can call the police. I am not being rude. You are rude because you are disrespecting everyone by disobeying the law and the sign posted there about dogs.”
“Do you work here?”
Here we go, again, I thought, it is all right to disobey the rules if some recognized authority is not around.
I ignored her. I asked a man standing nearby if it was his turn.
“No, it is your turn.”
“Excuse me then for the delay. It seems to be a dog’s world.”
“I really don’t care.”
“Congratulations,” I said to the careless man, and inquired of the private security office standing nearby why the dog laws were not being enforced.
“The management does not want us to speak to that. Only they can do anything about it.”
“Well, South Beach has gone to the dogs. People just do whatever they want if no cops are around, and get away with breaking laws even when they are around. Many people complain about that.”
“That is going on everywhere nowadays,” he said sympathetically.
“The whole world is going to the dogs? People tell me otherwise, like the traffic cop from LA I met last month who told me he was amazed at the lack of traffic law enforcement here on the beach, and blatant violations of the law.”
That being said, I went along toward my place. A wizened homeless man, a Hispanic gentleman who bothers no one, just sits around smoking big cigars, was standing on the corner having a loud conversation with an imaginary person, not in his usual Spanish, but in fluent French.
“That is strange,” I remarked to a neighbor from New York who was standing in front of his building across the street, “that old hidalgo is talking to an imaginary person in French. He no longer wears the fancy cowboy boots.”
“A lot of people do that around here. South Beach has gone to hell. My wife and I are making good money, the weather is nice, but we are getting out of here. People are coming from everywhere, and the disrespect, the shootings, is awful. South Beach is a hellhole.”
“I thought maybe it was me. I’ve been here for awhile, and when the president was calling other countries shitholes, I thought of my own place, and the high rent ordinary people have to pay for shitholes, the nice places going to the super-rich. I would go back to my country but I don’t know where that is anymore.”
“It’s not you. It’s South Beach. Believe me, things are different elsewhere.”
“That is what I am hearing from friends who leave. They are telling me to get out, get back to civilization.”
“They are telling you right.”
I do not think that couple has a comfort dog. They look comfortable with each other. Maybe they will get a dog when they have kids, as it is said that pets make children more humane. I guess pets bring out the animal in man, and that is a good thing. Yet I think humans have a higher nature, and that if they become dogs it will not be long until they regress to being classical werewolves.
# #
Mayor Philip Levine and Earl MSNBC ad at South Pointe Lifeguard Station
MIAMI BEACH HAS GONE TO THE DOGS
Mayoral campaign promotes unsanitary beaches
15 August 2015
His dog Earl is Philip Levine’s best friend. We do not begrudge him that. A dog is often a man’s only friend because it is loves him faithfully no matter what, even if abused. Furthermore, a dogged candidate will get a lot of votes.
The mayor claims that it was not his personal wealth and friendship with the Clintons that won 50.8% of the vote and the 17 votes that avoided a runoff against Michael Gongora at the last election. His money may have purchased a majority on the commission, making him a strong mayor of a city with a weak mayor charter, but his money was meaningless to the dogs who won the day for him.
Mayor Levine’s political advertisement on North Beach
The illustrious media mogul and real estate developer said he knocked on 6,000 doors, heard dogs barking at 75 percent of the residences, and promoted a bark beach for neglected North Beach, which he conceived to be a sort of sister city to popular South Beach. After he got elected, he got that done fast because you do not say no to the mayor and get away with it given his penchant for fascistic governance. The project was evidently celebrated on the North Beach sand outside of the confines of a fenced-in dog park, raising some concerns about the contamination of the beach with dog waste. The new bark beach park is enclosed and attended to by the city for a modest annual fee to its users.
A local ordinance prohibits animals other than human beings from being present on beaches other than specially protected areas, the North Beach bark park being the only bark beach park thus far.
Why the prohibition? According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a single gram of dog waste can contain 23 million fecal coliform bacteria, which are known to cause cramps, diarrhea, intestinal illness, and serious kidney disorders in humans. Dog feces are one of the most common carriers of the following diseases: Whipworms; Hookworms; Roundworms; Tapeworms; Parvo; Corona; Giardiasis; Salmonellosis; Cryptosporidiosis; Campylobacteriosis. The EPA estimates that two or three days‘ worth of droppings from a population of about 100 dogs would contribute enough bacteria to temporarily close a bay, and all watershed areas within 20 miles of it, to swimming and shell fishing.
Nonetheless, the Levine advertisement for his reelection, featuring him with his dog at the South Pointe beach’s iconic lighthouse lifeguard station, is promoting the unrestricted presence of dogs on the beach contrary to existing ordinance and federal health advisories.
The advertisements have been running for several weeks on television networks. The TV spots have been referred to the city’s code enforcement officials with a suggestion that the mayor be fined for each broadcast featuring his violation of the ordinance. A gentleman of his substance would willingly pay the fines, or have a political action committee pay them, instead of ordering his henchman the city manager to declare the area violated an ex post facto bark beach, by virtue of the dictatorial power written into the ordinance by the mayor’s majority on the commission.
pretty woman and dog
It is unknown at this time whether the funding for the television commercial is related to the so-called Dirty PAC Money Affair. The mayor is rich and able to fund his own campaign as he did before; a couple of million dollars for a job that pays less than $10,000 per year is chump change for him. The glory of basking in vanity magazines and slick media advertisements and going on perhaps to become an ambassador to Saudi Arabia for Hilary is well worth it.
A civic-minded South Beach resident who frequents the beach informed me that she has been threatened for politely reminding people with dogs on the beach that all animals except humans are prohibited on the beach. She said that one woman cursed at her, pulled out her cell phone and called two men out of a beach residence, and they approached her in an aggressive manner. Sometimes, she said, the same people have a dozen or so dogs on the beach in the mornings, running in the sand and swimming in the water.
Furthermore, despite efforts to tame South Pointe Park with police patrols, and the installation of a security guard at the new pier, she said dogs are running around loose on the beach itself as policemen sit on their ATVs elsewhere in the park to chat since not much is happening besides dogs on the beach and running around off leash in the park.
My informant, whose name I withhold to protect her from retaliation, which is the primitive rule rather than the exception in the city, said that she loves dogs, and longs to have one herself since her ex-husband, enraged by her love for her dog, bashed its brains out against the wall in front of her.
Her own breeding, she said, has caused her to be far more concerned with cleanliness and hygiene than most people, and to politely advise others to abide by public hygiene standards. And for that we cannot blame her. Indeed, sanitation is fundamental to religion as is evident in primitive cleansing rituals.
“They have dog parks off the beach and should use them. I do not want myself and others to be infected by dog waste. They should obey the law.”
Miami Beach residents are not known for their social conscience unless that conscience includes the entire animal kingdom set upside down in ethical terms. Ethologists have persuaded themselves that human conscience is rooted in base forms of social life despite the prejudice of libertarians and anarchists that individuals possess an innate freedom of conscience, an inner light or an intuitive, private access to enlightenment from the highest authority.
The Knight Ridder Foundation has reported that most new residents are attracted to Miami as a place to live privately without social pressures. Thus a few Miami Beach people who do associate in groups have obtained political power over an apathetic population of 100,000. Those groups are dominated by the affluent residents residing in the multimillion dollar condominiums on the fringes of the beach, especially in South Beach. A few thousand votes will win local elections. The unincorporated South of Fifth Neighborhood Association, whose economic elite has supported the continuing conversion of the neighborhood by developers into a condominium retreat for ultra high-income individuals, is the mayor’s ardent supporter. In any event, the mayor’s self-involved attitude, that anything he does or supports is absolutely great, and that all dissent must be stifled, strikes a chord with many South of Fifth Street residents.
My informant said she made the “mistake” of stopping to advise a woman on the South Pointe beach that dogs are not permitted on the beach.
“I was very courteous, spoke softly and smiled, but the beautiful modele screamed at me, called me a terrorist, and threatened to knock me down, so I went over to the officers chatting on their ATVs nearby. One of them said they were supposed to be ‘lenient’ in the mornings, so they did not enforce the law. I said leniency was against the hygiene law, and that this woman had threatened to knock me down twice just for mentioning it. The other officer agreed, so they went over to her. She saw them coming, and removed some of her clothing as they approached—a female strategy—but when they started talking to her, she screamed at them. I tried to take a close-up picture, but one of the officers ordered me not to take pictures. I thought he would arrest me if I did, so I was frightened and left.”
I went over to the beach the next morning to follow up on her story. It was already 90 degrees and as humid as the Amazon.
First of all, I discovered that South Beach lifeguards became so exasperated by the rudeness of dog owners on the beach that they have given up on saying anything to them at all.
People do not even bother to get phony service dog tags now that the mayor has legitimized dogs on the beach. The law does not require any proof anyway; all one can do is ask what kind of service the dog is providing. I recalled how frustrated the manager at the Publix was with people who allow their so-called service dogs to urinate and defecate in the shopping carts and hand baskets.
So the lifeguards now focus on people in the water since their core mission is to save them from drowning. The code of silence prevents them from speaking about the conduct of police officers.
A famous dog has run of park and beach
A security officer, speaking under condition of anonymity as several dogs ran past us onto the sand—including the famous dog whose wealthy owner paid so many tickets that orders were allegedly given to ignore further violations—related that dog owners who live in the neighborhood had yelled and screamed at him as well, and had even spit on him. He said he did not care if the famous dog’s owner got $2,000 in tickets; he should get $6,000 or more in tickets until he starts obeying the law.
We spoke of how Commissioner Michael Grieco, a criminal defense attorney who frequents the park, had been helpful with quality of life issues.
“He has done some good,” I admitted. “Mayor Levine, however, is advertising dogs on the sand at South Pointe, so Michael goes along with it because, in a way, he is the mayor’s chief dog. He should growl once in awhile, and even bark, show some independence if he wants to be mayor. And he is deliberately blind to the city manager’s incompetence, perhaps because the city manager recommends whatever the mayor wants because his job depends on the mayor’s majority. A provision was made in the ordinance to allow the city manager to dictate the create dog parks anywhere he wants.”
I did not mind referring to the commissioner as a dog, since I was told that I had been called a dog by a prominent neighborhood association member as a result of my efforts to get the construction and real estate sign blight in the neighborhood eliminated. Several wealthy residents, virtual stooges for the developers, had scoffed at my belief that signage should be permitted and architects and contractors licensed in Florida.
As a matter of fact, I am a dog lover myself in the right setting. For me, that is the countryside. My favorite stories in my childhood were personifications of wild dogs running the countryside, occasionally joined by domesticated farm dogs. My father thought it pathetic that people had come to love their dogs more than people, and said they should be canned and sent to Asia to feed the poor. Dogs eat humans, and humans eat dogs, he noted.
South Pointe Park (OFF-LEASH) 1 Washington Avenue Sunrise - 10:00 a.m. • Daily 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. • Monday - Friday only DOGS PERMITTED OFF-LEASH IN THIS AREA ONLY It is a violation to permit dogs to run at large in any other area of this park, or in this designated area at any time other than posted, or to fail to clean up after your dog*. Violations are subject to fines and strictly enforced. Hours of operations only in specified area (fence-less grass area south and west of the Washington Avenue entry plaza).
I strolled towards the off-leash area in the park, a short distance from the beach. I noticed several dogs along the way, off leash in the rest of the park as usual. The off-leash laws are not and have never been strictly enforced. In fact, Miami Beach has a long history of selective enforcement of various municipal ordinances. Violators in South Pointe Park get occasional warnings, and are rarely ticketed. After all, these residents are the power elite that elected officials prefer not to offend. People do not bring dogs over from Miami to run in the park and on the beach.
I espied two men and a woman with their dogs in the designated off-leash area. I asked them why there was no dog run as advertised by the city for bark parks.
There has never had been a dog run here, one gentleman said, but at least it is the only bark park in the city without a fence around it.
I said I remembered a great controversy over putting a hedge around it, at which he said he and the other two were having a very important conversation, so get lost.
They must be conspiring to make more money, I conjectured as I went on my way, because that is almost all I hear people talking about in the neighborhood. Donald Trump, Martha Steward, Leona Helmsley, Philip Levine, among others, claim they would do on wrong or are independent because they have plenty of money; there is, however, never enough money.
Transcripts from the Great Hedge Controversy of 2012 include the park director’s testimony that the off-leash area was working well for 18 months because residents were providing their own monitoring. The only resident who dared to expose the nonsense about the protective hedge was one Jean Kulick.
Before reporting her testimony, the city was careful to disqualify her: “Ms. Kulick did not offer any credentials into the record to indicate any background or training with regard to park design, maintenance, or management.”
“Her generalized testimony included that the multiple use of the Park has been seriously unbalanced by the extension of the off-leash hours. Ms. Kulick also opined that due to the climate with no rain, the vestige of feces left by dogs in the Park is dangerous. She also disagreed with other record testimony that dog owners are self-policing and referred to them as "distasteful" and "shabbily rude" to the security guards and that hedges would not be able to cope with the dog situation. Ms. Kulick also speculated that the Park will deteriorate, while also commenting that the Parks Department does a "brilliant job" and "they've maintained it beautifully." Additionally, without any photographic or other evidence, Ms. Kulick opined that the regular use of the Park grass by off-leash dogs would leave urine stains and that it would be a dust bowl.”
Since then, city contractor Superior Landscaping has been replacing the brand new grass installed in the park although people did have difficulty seeing anything wrong with it. The multimillion dollar project, called the Grassdoggle, is said to be necessary because Superior did not have enough money in its coffers.
No credentials in park management were needed from another resident:
“Larry Wyman, another resident in the neighborhood and on the board of the SoFiK9 organization, also testified. He noted the success of the South Pointe Park off-leash area and that the issues described by Ms. Kulick where pretty much the exception and not the rule. Mr. Wyman testified to the tremendous community that has developed amongst dog owners who visit the Park and that the off leash program has worked better than as described in the comments by Ms. Kulick. In addition, Mr. Wyman noted that the Park has sprinklers and the alleged problem regarding dog urine was not really an issue. Based on his observations, the use that the grass is taking in the off-leash area is no different than the use the grass is taking in other areas of the Park where picnicking, playing soccer, and other activities occur.”
Anyone who bothers to look can see dogs off leash in the park, and they can take plenty of pictures of violations as well.
Carl Schmitt, the doctor of jurisprudence who justified the suspension of the Weimar constitution for the National Socialist Party, and whose protégé Leo Strauss was admired by President Bush’s strategists, said that to get anything done in a democracy, given its conflicting interests, one must lie. Wherefore the world is covered with bullshit.
Suffice it to say that everyone who frequents South Pointe Park and who are concerned with hygiene knows well enough not to roll around in the grass. Hilda Fernandez, an assistant city manager during the Great Hedge Controversy, pointed out that dogs will do their thing whether on or off leash, and so will their owners.
Now that the mayor has taken the law into his own hands to condone the presence of animals besides humans on the beach, it is advisable to wear shoes, to avoid contact with the sand, and not to swim in the water. Travel agencies should be notified, and advisory signs should be posted for the protection of the public.
Continuing on my way, I noticed a woman smiling lovingly at her off-leash dog, and he seemed to be smiling back. The sight was charming, really.
A fuzzy little brown dog ran up to get a whiff of me. So cute!
A man came out of the Mondrian with a dog, turned it loose to run around and do its thing, and then went back to his condo without cleaning up. I paused there for awhile to read some of Thomas Mann’s ‘A Man and His Dog.’
“Here for awhile I stroll along the paths, and Bashan revels in the freedom of unlimited level space, galloping across and across the lawns like mad with his body inclined in a centrifugal plane; sometimes, barking with mingled pleasure and exasperation, he pursues a bird which flutters as though spellbound, but perhaps on purpose to tease him, along the ground just in front of his nose. But if I sit on the bench he is at my side at once and takes up a position on one of my feet. For it is a law of his being that he only runs about when I am in motion too; that when I settle down he follows suit. There seems no obvious reason for this practice; but Bashan never fails to conform to it. I get an odd, intimate, and amusing sensation from having him sit on my foot and warm it with the blood-heat of his body. A pervasive feeling of sympathy and good cheer fills me, as almost invariably when in his company and looking at things from his angle.”
Man is a self-conscious animal who makes a god of himself and sets himself against the animal that he is. What we have here, I concluded, is a conflict in need of reconciliation, a conflict between god and god spelled backwards.
# #
I am thoroughly qualified for having a service dog. However, having owned a dog that I loved greatly that I could still take care of, but couldn't protect from dog killing dogs, he was more of a comfort dog than anything else. When I see people in wheelchairs with their service dogs, I wonder how many caretakers they need to take care of the dogs and clean up… etc. My little guy left his dry dog food deposits in my small yard for several years with no side effects except healthier greener grass and my landscape guys chewing up all those little dry deposits for fertilizer. Never got dog shit on my shoe.
Thanks for the gory details anyway…
Ron