Dog ban postponed in Alaska

They are getting tough in Anchorage, Alaska, about people cleaning up after their pets.

It was almost to the point where dogs were going to be banned from fenced city ball parks. A previous version of a law had dogs banned from all sports fields, fenced or not. Fines were going to be jacked up for scofflaws.

Dog lovers bought themselves a year to work on informing people about their responsibility.

A group calling itself AADOG (Anchorage Alaska Dog Owners Group), whose members get together for dog play dates at one fenced fields thinks residents will do the right thing — by always cleaning up after their pets.

"We are absolutely fastidious about that," AADOG member Steve Kreinbrink said. "We want to be good stewards."

Here is the complete article from the Anchorage Daily News.

I hope that some of my neighbors read this and stop allowing their dogs to relieve themselves all over our street.

Is it so difficult to pick up after your dog?

It ain't easy being green

I don't mean to cut into Alice and Jackie's domain, but I've been reading a a lot of serious books lately, many having to do with environment.

One in particular — The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman — speculates on how the Earth would change if humans were to completely disappear. Houses would eventually crumble, streets would turn into rivers, forest and wildlife would reclaim what was theirs.

But there are some things that will be around for quite a while, like plastic bags.

So in my small way, I've started thinking green. I bought a couple of reusable shopping bags for groceries and, for the gift that keeps on giving, I now use biodegradable bags to pick up after Kate.

I was using food-grade gallon-size bags to collect and dispose of dog waste — an average of three a day.

Made from corn, the biodegradable bags are pricey, so I ordered a bunch from a national pet store chain who had them on sale. And there are Web sites that also sell the dog-waste bags, as well as other biodegradable home products.

Maybe if more people start using them the price will come down.

Now I'll have to work on the apartment complex setting aside some space for composting.