There were scant reasons to pick up The Houstonian before I started writing and was later hired as viewpoints editor. Among those reasons were the columns by Jamaal Bachelor, specifically his saga about smelly bushes.
I now empathize with Bachelor stepping outside and inhaling putrid air. My apartment stinks, although I don’t have the good fortune to shroud this stench in mystery.
My apartment recently became pet friendly. Excellent.Fact: All living things create waste.Opinion: Animal waste stinks.
Listen:Nothing is wrong with having a dog; the problem is when owners don’t spend the $12.95 at Wal-Mart for a pooper-scooper. I am not anti-dog or pro-dog. I am anti-careless dog owner and pro-picking up after your dog.
I imagine dog enthusiasts throwing off their hats in outrage, “But I love my dog(s)!” More than my dislike for dog feces slowly consuming my apartment, dog enthusiasts should be outraged by the poor treatment of these dogs. The average college student is addled by balancing 12-15 hours of class a week, work and quarter night, should not add on the burden of care for a pet.
The most I usually see these dogs get walked is the distance from their apartment to their bathroom and back. As an aside, their bathroom is most often near my front door.
I occasionally wake up in the middle of the night to howling. What keeps me awake is the question, “Are the dogs perturbed by the cramped space, or because they live in their own filth when they’re owners are away.”
There is a saying, “Caring for a pet is great practice for childrearing.”
These dog owners, if the saying is true, are shaping up to be aloof parents; the kind of parents who leave their children scorching in the car, while they pick up cigarettes.
The long and short of it is this: there is an inappropriate time and place for everything, like bringing a five-year old to an R-rated movie, or a toddler to any movie at all. Similar to being a neglectful dog owner, the former will negatively impact the dog (not) cared for, and the latter will piss off those around.
This column is a part of Bachelor’s legacy, but also, it’s a personal grievance against my peers’ contributions to olfactory pollution. Let me conclude with this theme of legacy with a quote from my column about smoking in public:
“I could care less what you do to yourself [or your dog]. I only have a genuine concern what you do to me.”