…dog owners don’t pick up after their dogs!

When I was a kid, I remember it was pretty normal to see dogs roaming and poo on the ground but times have changed (thank goodness!) and now I really don’t expect to see a stray dog or dog poo on the ground, yet there are some people who will not clean up after their dogs!

Joe and I quite often take our dog for walk near to where we live, Joe is on his trike (with me pushing!) and the dog on the lead.  To get to where we go you have to walk along a really lovely row of bungalows and very posh houses, one side of the road is the back of a private school and has a a lot of trees along the path so come Autumn there are lots of leaves everywhere.  Its very picturesque, I actually ought to get my camera up there but I never have enough hands!  Anyway, every time we go there there is an unsuspecting dog turd hiding under the leaves an it ALWAYS gets stuck in the tyre treads of the trike.  The thing is there is even a poo bin nearby so there is absolutely no excuse!

I walk to work, its only 10 minutes away and Joe’s nursery is also close by, we have to walk along a pretty busy road with houses either side.  Somewhere you would expect that people would feel obliged to pick up after their dogs, surely?  Nope!  There is always poo on either side of the road, I once saw a man walking his 3 dogs up that road and he didn’t even stop while they did their business.  He was pulling the dogs while one of them was trying to take a dump and so the plop was trailed all the way up the pavement and he didn’t stop to pick it up.  I was too far away to say anything!

It really gets on my nerves.  I have a dog, I pick up after her and I have been known to stop and ask another dog owner for a spare bag if I’ve been caught out by my dog.  There is no excuse not to do it and it will actually save some poor soul treading in it, falling in it or having to blast it out of tyre treads on a bike, trike or pram!

I have become a mosquito’s perfect dinner.  On Monday evening, I went out in the garden to brush the dog (can’t do it in the house because there’s far too much fur) and it must have taken no more than 2 minutes for me to feel a pinch on my shoulder.  As I checked to see what it was, I found the horrible little bugger with her stinger inserted into my shoulder like a straw in a juice carton; I say she because after reading on them (I’m getting to know my enemy) it seems that its the females that need a blood meal before she lays her eggs.  Anyway, I squished that one but soon enough I had another bite, then another until I’d had enough and my dog was considerably fluffier than before so went inside to try my best not scratch and smothered myself in Savlon.  I counted 5 on my arm, 4 on my back and 2 on my leg.  I react to bites, badly.  They swell, weep, itch and really ache and the last time I had a bite (which was a few years ago), I ended up going to the Minor Injuries Unit because it was so painful and swollen so I was not looking forward to having so many at once.  I took some anti-histamine which made me all drowsy but took the itching away.

On Tuesday, the bites had started to swell slightly but nothing too bad and they were very itchy so my friend at work zapped me with this ingenious little device that stops the swelling and itching.  It works but you really have to zap yourself silly for any prolonged relief.

Anyway, on Tuesday evening I had to go back into the garden to water the tomatoes and squash and got 3 more bites, then while sitting indoors a little nasty came and chewed on my foot (on the top) and on my neck!  So, I managed to survive all summer without a single bite and have become a feast in 2 days. Joy.  Now I have some very attractive weeping lumps on my legs, arms, back and neck and the swelling has started again.

I just cant stop scratching….

I walked out of Peacocks today, annoyed and utterly flabbergasted at one of the girls who works there.  They have recently had a re-fit and seemingly, there is no specific place to leave a rail full of clothes which is out of sight so it was put in front of the children’s clothing.  I wanted to look at said clothing so pushed the rail out of the way so I could have a look at the boy’s clothes, obviously this was not the thing to do as one of the assistants walked over to it and said to her colleague, “Oh God, someone has moved this rail again!” and as I was looking at the clothes, she pushed the rail back to its original position – in front of me (almost hitting the pushchair) and went to walk away.  Cue one pissed off Mummy!  I said, “Actually, I moved the rail as I wanted to look at the clothes.” to which she sighed deeply and replied, “Oh, ok then” and then rolled her eyes at me and pushed it away – no sorry or anything.  I said to her, “well you almost hit my buggy when you pushed the rail back towards me” and then she gave me another death look a la Vicky Pollard, so feeling VERY, VERY angry I said, “well actually, you may as well put the rail back because I wont be buying anything from here.”

I then stormed off in the direction of another store worker and complained like hell to the Assistant Manager!

Bad Customer Service REALLY gets on my nerves and I shall never be stepping foot into Peacocks again.