Love it, especially the waving your arms like a mad woman! Wish I could
have been there!

Suzy
"Sterling" wrote in message
...
When I lived 'downtown', I had a very small front yard much taken up
with a magnolia tree. The tree would drop these big 'plastic' leaves
that never seemed to disintegrate. I raked all the time. I had to rake
with rubber gloves on as the dog poop would stick to the leaves and make
a real mess. My grass strip was always half yellow and dead.

There was a very nice, big park at the end of the street with a wooded
area for the dogs 'to go'. And I took my dog there, not allowing her to
use a neighbor's lawn. I was furious about the stinky mess outside my
door, with the park only a block farther down.

I decided I had had enough. Every morning and evening I lurked by the
front door and just as Fido would go into a squat, I ran out the front
door yelling "no! no! no! no! no!" and waving my arms and looking like a
mad woman. The dog and owner would freeze in position. Then the owner
would say 'oh, he/she just ..." feebly justifying it like it was the
first and only time. And I would say 'I have to rake all these leaves
with this very smelly mess. Take him/her to the park!"

There was a certain timing to it - before work time and after work time
- and I had to get the timing right. But I never had to do the same act
twice to the same person. I did notice they regularly crossed the street
when they came to my house.