Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Donna Molofsky - Pfafftown, NC
Our two dogs—Blondie and Sally—would make great drug-sniffing dogs for law enforcement. Sniffing out explosives at airports would be another good career move for both of them. But, alas, their talents are wasted sniffing neighbors’ garbage.
We recently lived in a suburb of Atlanta in a large townhome complex. The garbage Dumpsters were evenly spaced throughout the complex, and although the residents of this community were upscale, the Dumpsters were worthy of skid row. Somehow, no one could throw their garbage and hit the opening of the Dumpster accurately. It was believed that close was good enough.
My dogs are attracted to the most disgusting things. They enjoy sniffing around a Dumpster the way humans enjoy walking past a bakery. They cannot resist the sticky ice cream carton or the used baby diapers, so I would often be dragged over for a sniff. (“Come on, Mom, you know you want to check out this pizza carton.”)
So, walking Blondie and Sally provided me an opportunity to examine the things that my neighbors discarded—which makes you wonder what’s going on in my poor brain. On my walks with them around the complex, I discovered the following items thrown in the general direction of the Dumpsters and elsewhere:
• A bed with a purple velvet headboard, worthy of Belle Watling’s ##### house in Gone with the Wind.
• A five pound bag of potatoes. Perfectly fresh. No roots sticking out of them. For shame! Think of the hash browns that never saw the light of day!
• An empty vodka bottle on the ground. For shame! Think of the person who never saw the light of day when it was being used!
• Many items lost by children near the playground: hair clasps and “scrunchies”, an occasional action figure, a tube of “pretend” lipstick. (I just hope the kids were not responsible for the vodka bottle.)
• A perfectly decent philodendron in a broken plastic pot sitting on the ground near a Dumpster. I took pity on this poor plant and brought it to my front stoop where it thrived in the sun after a good watering. Later that fall, to avoid the frost, I brought it indoors, where Blondie ate it one night while I was at choir practice. By the way, did you know the poison control hotline will help you with an animal emergency too? Philodendrons are toxic to dogs, and they said that Blondie’s mouth would be irritated the next day. Fortunately, she was okay. I wish I could say the same for the philodendron.
• And the food bones! I think that the nightly visitors to the Dumpsters—that is, the feral cats who had a temporary home there—thought they had a sidewalk café placed there just for them. After dining al fresco they left the meat bones scattered around like used napkins at a rib shack. Blondie and Sally would serve as a cleaning crew before I could pull them away.
So, my dogs were sniffing and eating junk that they shouldn’t, and I began to wonder why we have so much garbage in the first place.
Is it because in a country with such abundance we all assume that “there’s more where that came from?” Do we think that the food, clothing, and home furnishings are never-ending? And why am I taking garbage so seriously? Because these days, when we are all more conscious of the gas, electricity, and water we consume, we are more likely to notice the waste that comes with over-consumption.
I enjoy being preachy, but the truth is that I use more than my share of stuff, too. Nevertheless, I have some suggestions for all of us. First, if you have an unwanted plant or perfectly good item you no longer need, give it to a friend. Secondly, have you heard of Goodwill or the Salvation Army? Duh. My husband and I make a dozen trips to one or the other of these agencies when we are cleaning out or moving. Finally, let’s not buy what we don’t really need. Or at least make some hash browns!
comments
Donna—Oh how I wish to sleep beneath a purple velvet headboard. Say hey to your dogs for me.
Scott
Posted by Scott on 08.13.2008 at 07:17 pm
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