Saturday, August 18, 2007

A Long Week

It's just been a long week. I have: a motion to dismiss filed against me in one case, a trial coming up next Friday in another case, 3 foreclosures sitting on my desk that I haven't even started on, and I'm really just not sure what else. Oh. And the case in which I got the motion to dismiss has trial scheduled for October 9. Not to mention the fact that I got into a bitch-fest with a judge (on the phone, no less) on Monday. That was fun.

Then, I got a notice from the board of directors of my condo association (actually, everyone got one) that included a complaint about (and prohibition against) keeping dog poopy on the porch until garbage day, along with complaints about excessive water usage and other things.*

Here's what they want us to do: pick up the poopy because it's disgusting and unsanitary, take it into our unit, and either flush it down the toilet or store it inside until trash day. Excuse me? I'm not taking something "disgusting and unsanitary" into my house to sit for a week! If they think having it on the porch is smelly, what do they think it's going to smell like inside the house?

Not to mention the increase in water use that is going to come from flushing the toilet three times as often - let alone getting poopy out of a baggie that is containing it very well, particularly if it is a little, well, "messy." These are obviously people who do not have dogs.

I looked into the Doggie Dooley, which looks like a great idea, but that won't deal with the smell problem since it's really just a miniature septic system for dog waste that requires you to add water to it every time you make a "deposit." To deal with the smell, they sell a little "deodorizer kit", but that's just a bottle of "extra heavy duty" Oust-type spray with a little pad that fits on the inside of the lid to the Dooley. Not really a bad idea in concept, but not the most practical thing for a condo. If I had my own house, I would totally consider one of these.

So, it started out badly and now that it's Saturday, I am just sitting here thinking, "what happened? Where did the week go?"

Fortunately, my car is no longer making funny noises and my dog is just wonderful. As I said: it's been a long week. Hope yours is going better. Soon it will be time for apple cider and sweaters and raking leaves, and that's my favorite time of the year anyway, so for now, I'm just going to keep hanging in there until things settle down.


* Our condo complex has the water bill paid out of our association fee, which is really quite wonderful. Our association fee includes the water and sewer, natural gas usage, insurance and maintenance, so I really shouldn't complain.....

3 comments:

Kassi Gilbert said...

YOu should just bury the poo. Seriously. Dig a hole and put it in there. No smell and no waste, and it is perfect fertilizer...they will be happy that their grass is so green. :)

Spilling Ink said...

I wouldn't bring the dog doo indoors, either. When traveling I used to seal up poopy diapers in a ziplock baggie. No smells could escape. Maybe you could put the doody in a baggie and keep the baggies outside in a big coffee can so the neighbors won't know. Put a no smoking sign on your front door and they will think the coffee can is an ashtray.

Aren't condo associations fun?

lawyerchik said...

Those are good ideas - although the association doesn't want any containers on the porch. I tried using a smaller paint bucket (thinking that if they object to it, I'll have them in a corner given the acceptability of the salt bucket which is a big white paint bucket), but it's the use, rather than the object.

I like the burial idea, too. That's the concept behind the Dooley, and it's frustrating that it doesn't guarantee results under 40 degrees.

In the summer and fall, it's not that bad, because they do have trash cans outside where I can take the bags. Unfortunately, they pull the trash containers in the winter, when the Dooley system doesn't work, so I may have to get a little more creative about this. Thanks for the ideas!!