pet connection

Yah’d think that Christie would mention that she has a new column up on the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFGate.com Web site. But nooooo-ooooooo. She expects me to remember to look completely on my own every other Tuesday. I mean, really.

Well, anyway, it’s pretty darn good, as always. And she has already received a fan letter from a sanitation engineer.

Drat that girl writes gud:

So, you got up one morning, looked in the mirror, and vowed to reduce your carbon footprint. That backyard composting project you’d been putting off for years? Definitely time. The stack of newspapers by the kitchen table? Going to the recycling center this week, you swore.
And then your cat rubbed against your ankles, asking for her breakfast. You opened the box of cat food and shook the last of the kibble into her bowl, and tossed the empty box into the trash. The noise brought your dog into the kitchen, looking for a walk and his breakfast, too.

While you were driving the few miles to the dog park, you hit the drive-through espresso place, your engine idling while you waited your turn. You sat on the bench at the park watching your dog play with other dogs, sipping a latte and chatting with other early-morning dog walkers, maybe about your newfound resolution to be a better environmental citizen.

You called your dog, hoping he’d pooped while you were otherwise distracted, threw your empty coffee cup into the trash can, and headed back home. You didn’t stop at the bank or post office because it was too warm to leave the dog in the car, so you’d have to make a second trip later that day.

When you got home, you opened a can of dog food and mixed it with some kibble. You threw the can away, and then dumped your cat’s litter into a plastic bag, and threw that away, too. Then you got back in your car to do those errands you’d had to put off when you were out earlier with the dog.

This isn’t a lesson in spotting hypocrisy, nor even a subtle message that people who let their dogs poop without picking it up are jerks. (Although they are — so much for “subtle.”) It’s really nothing more than a checklist of a few of the ways humans impact the environment with the decisions we make about caring for our pets.

In this column, I’m going to look at the environmental impacts of pet ownership, some of which are fairly obvious and some of which most of us rarely consider.

Green pets. I think I’m having a good influence on her!

Share & Enjoy

Facebook	Twitter	Google Buzz	Digg
Technorati	StumbleUpon	Delicious	Email