Kelly Gorman Dunbar

Every day the headlines shout about our terrible economy. Gas prices launch out of control, and subsequently food prices are on the rise. Everyone I know is tightening up their budgets and buckling down their expenditures. The economy is not so great right now and sometimes it does make me anxious.

I don’t fret too much though, because everyday when I stop reading The Huffington Post and pause to look down at my feet my spirits are buoyed. My three dogs sit near me while I work at my desk. Dune and Hugo on one side, curled up on a way-too-small leopard-print bed, and on the other side lays Claude on his big square mat. (Also leopard-print, have you tried it? Leopard-print is the perfect camouflage for a dog bed.)

Dog lovers and experts may not agree on much, but there is one thing that is irrefutable, dogs poop. A lot. It may not be the most pleasant subject but it is inescapable and important at the same time because when you ignore it you end up stepping in it. And that is what this piece is about.

I walk my dogs, feed them high quality food, and make sure they’re exercised and entertained nearly every day. I am a stickler about picking up any waste my dogs deposit and throwing it away. I even pick up other dog poo when I see it because, frankly, any poop on the streets or walkways reflects poorly on all of us dog lovers, and the anti-dog sector doesn’t need any more fuel for their diabolical cause.

Recently it dawned on me that my effort to be a responsible dog owner might well be causing harm to the environment. Suddenly I find myself at an ethical impasse. You see, I love my dogs and I am also quite fond of our planet Earth.

My dog Hugo just came home from the animal hospital last night after over 30 hours (and several hundreds of dollars) in care due to mushroom toxicity. He is resting and feeling better now, but this has been quite a scare because several types of mushrooms are toxic enough to rapidly cause liver failure and death in both dogs and humans. He is not quite out of the woods yet, we have to do yet another liver enzyme check and observe him closely over the next few days, but I am optimistic that he will survive this violent assault on his poor little system.

I’m sitting in London’s Heathrow Airport, waiting for my flight back home to California and am taking some time to reflect on these last 10 days in England. Unlike so many of my trips this one was for social reasons, not work, and I had plenty of time to explore and enjoy my surroundings, which for me includes checking out the local dog scene.

This time around I spent a large portion of my time here in The New Forest. It is a place full of the usual forest animals (deer, fox, pheasant, rabbits, frogs, snakes, etc) and also a place where livestock animals (ponies, cattle, pigs, donkeys) free-graze, pretty much roam free in general, anywhere they’d like really, and it is fantastic.