King of Excellent (according to Scaryduck)

Tuesday, January 25

On dog toffee

When I was a kid, one of the less endearing memories I have was of dog crap on the streets. Admittedly, this included the fabled white dog crap, with it's chalky, powdery texture that wouldn't stick to anything. I do remember however getting in trouble with my neighbour after treading in his dog's crap and then using his door step's corner to clean in between the grips of my trainers. Fortunately, people got civilised. Much like drink driving, letting your dog take a dump in a public place and leaving it meant that you were a social outcast if you committed this crime. Also, the advent of dog wardens meant that your dog no longer wandered the streets. And with a fine of £2,500 if you were caught letting your dog crap and not pooper scooping, people were safer to walk the streets.
And then I moved to Ireland.
Here, Dog Wardens exist. Apparently. In our road we have a good half a dozen pooches left to wander daily, scavenging from bins, chasing cars (yes, even the dog with the flat face, from chasing parked cars), and crapping everywhere. I think since we've moved over however, the same mutts have taken offence to Shallot's small "indoor fireworks" and want to mask his scent with theirs, so they have taken to dumping in our gardens on a biblical scale. Even worse, however, is that they've got a favourite place. The bit along the side of the drive. They have nice flat grass and concrete drive to stand on, so they use it more than anywhere else. This means that when we pull up the car in the drive, the favourite edge is on the driver's side of the car. In the day this is bad, but at night it's positively like Russian roulette. More than once I have walked into the house, sniffed, and realised I have gained a few millimetres in height and lost some traction on my shoe.
I plan on getting a pressure washer soon, so I can really clean the drive and then hopefully they'll leave it alone a bit more, or at least we'll be able to see it before we tread in it. Alternatively, I can take to scooping up the offending objects and dropping them back in the offending family's garden so they can stand in them instead. Any other advice would be appreciated?