I usually let loose dogs Benji and Mocha (aka Choco Mocha Latte) to run with Syd and Gundy’s five dogs in the Villar Wilderness,1 but Benji’s still limping a bit from the accident, so I like to give him rest days. Which means walking each individually a few bocks around here on a leash while the other, forced to stay home, howls and cries and whimpers incessantly. Hard for Susan, and hardly a rest for me: after ten minutes, Benji finally ceases to be the equivalent of trying to restrain a runaway garden tractor. Mocha, on the other hand, is like a turbocharged small garden tractor with defective steering: slightly less forceful, but constant veering from left to right, making choking noises, and of course the classic back-right/cross/forward left wrap-the-walk-human-in-the-leash maneuver. Exactly what Benji did, but not something he taught Mocha. I thik that move is more instinctual.
Point is, I took them different directions, carefully selected rocks in pockets for the occasional loose and aggressive (if only playfully) neighborhood dog.
So I saw new stuff. After commenting yesterday on how often the trash containers have been emptied, in contrast to the recycling containers, this:
While it is true that most of the “dumpsters” near us have been well serviced, obviously some haven’t . Another day for this one, a few blocks from here, and no doubt there will be bags on the ground, eagerly torn apart by dogs, cats, and comadrejas (possums).
May be there was extensive waste from a party (as in this post), but it doesn’t look like that. Seems like one “they” forgot about. Notice the sliver of white in the lower right – that brush is piled on top of a discarded refrigerator. Maybe that has something to do with it?
1 In case you’re new here, this refers to 100+ hectares of no-man’s land, sandy scrub brush, islands of pine forest, seasonal water holes, cow pasture, burnt eucalyptus trunks, sand roads used by horses and motos/quads, punctuated by inexplicable trash deposits I have documented often, all north of the Ruta Interbalnearia in Villa Argentina.
Articles such as this one make me happy that I’m in Colonia. I have a mini-poodle that goes on walks unleashed with me along the beach, the sidewalks, downtown, and in the Ciudad Vieja. I have never had any problems that would lead me to decide to carry rocks. I have never seen a fight among the stray dogs, and they are all very friendly towards my poodle.
Also, we have trash collection seven days per week, and I have never seen issues such as those in the pictures.
Interesting – I recall befriending a street dog when we first visited Colonia in 2005. The only problems I’ve had here are with fenced-in dogs who spend all day barking at everything that passes, who then escape and don’t know how to behave. Our puppy gets along fine with everyone, but our big dog has aggression issues – normal sniff sniff for about ten seconds, then attack “play” mode. I may need to hire a trainer, since I don’t know how to deal with it.
I think there must be a garbage strike or something. Our container was not emptied yesterday in Villa Argentina norte. First missed regular pick-up since the system was initiated.