So, for those of you who do not live in the boonies like me, allow me to educate you on a couple of nuances that come with the territory - today we will discuss dogs. In the country, there are dogs everywhere! Literally, everywhere! There is no such thing as a nice little house pet in the country. Everyone has multiple pet dogs and they are all allowed to run loose through town. Additionally, there are a lot of stray dogs out here because the cruel people in the world tend to drop off animals they no longer want in the country instead of taking them to the pound. Now, all this to say, what to these dogs tend to do? Allow me to enlighten you:
- Run after your car barking,
- Get into your trash and strewn it all over your lawn,
- Drag dead animal parts out of the woods and drop them in your yard,
- Bark incessantly in the night (and proceed to wake up my sleeping babies),
- Get impregnated frequently and have puppies under your house,
- Sleep in the middle of the main road and wait until the very last minute to move out the way!
Now that I have explained the background, let me just list all of the things I have encountered this week:
- Neighbors dogs got into our trash - luckily, they did not attack the trash bag full of dirty diapers (gross)
- Half eaten possum head in our driveway (double gross)
- A detached deer leg that the neighbors dogs were gnawing on (this just freaks me out - I happen to see this dog dragging this deer leg down the road)
- A dead bird in my car port
Now, I ask you, what kind of mother would let their kids play in a yard where they might run into a half-eaten possum head or deer leg? Especially when those kids are too young to realize these things are gross and should not be touched. Thank goodness it is too cold to play outside right now, but the fact that I have to worry about such annoys me. I once would classify myself in the dog lover category, but since moving here I have become quite the opposite. Now, I don't hate all dogs, but I do find myself thinking at times that I wouldn't mind if some of these dogs accidentally got ran over by a truck. I would never run over them myself, because I am not that cruel, but if the accident where to happen maybe it would be God's will for them to join him in puppy heaven. In fact, I must not be the only person in town that feels this way, because the other day, there was a sign at the post office that said "Any dogs that enter my yard will be shot!" I'm not kidding, someone actually wrote this sign and hung it up at the post office! I also know that I will never EVER own a dog out here because I would not want the dog in my house after encountering who knows what outside and I find full time outside dogs pretty pointless. Plus, I feel sorry for the dogs here because most of them don't get much attention nor are they properly cared for (hence why they go scrounging through trash because they are hungry).
So, all this to say, that once again, living in the country, there is always something interesting/gross occurring and after living here over a year, I don't know if I will ever get used to that part of it. But I will keep trying...
