Any self-respecting small town has to have a cat lady. The cat lady for Vaison la Romaine happens to live at the end of our street. And she runs a cat house situated behind a hedge very near our back yard. Here she is, standing next to the cat house:
She is our friend. She is very nice. She is cogent and kind. She never fails to inquire after our well being. And two times a day, she walks from her house to the back yard of the house next to us to deliver food to the semi-stray cats (we guess between 5 and 7 in number) that live in the neighborhood. She carries the food in a sack that looks like a large purse. You can see the sack near her right elbow.
We recently learned that she has other operations around town. A few days ago, Averil found her about 6 blocks from the house climbing a ladder (brought there by her husband in the back of their car) and delivering meat to strays at the top of this 12 foot concrete retaining wall:
 |
| Stray Cats Live in the Bushes At the Top of This Wall |
 |
| Dishes of Food and Water and Top of Wall |
And there may be even more to the story. Averil, Ford and Asha have also discovered cat food dishes situated under a fence near the Roman Ruins in the middle of town (about half a mile from the house). They suspect that our friend is also feeding the cats there! But so far, it has not been proven. If we learn more information, we will be sure to let you know.
Most of the cats keep to themselves. But there is a cat named Celina (the name we gave her, not her real name) who has adopted Ivy as her best friend and comes over to visit every day. We think Celina has a home but we are not 100% sure. Here is a picture of Ivy with Celina:
They love each other very much.
That pretty much sums up the cat situation as far as we know. The town's dog situation is slightly more complicated.
There are two basic categories of town dogs: those that walk around on leashes, and those that walk around freely all day. French people love dogs. There are large water bowls conveniently situated at regular intervals around town:
There are not a lot of restrictions placed on the town dogs. They are allowed to go anywhere they please:
Some people think it is a problem that there is so much dog doo-doo around town. We will admit that there is quite a bit of dog doo-doo in the town . . . certainly much more than poop-bag-toting Seattleites are used to seeing. You just have to take care where you step. Not a big deal.
We think the out-of-towners are more prone than the locals to be offended by the amount of dog doo-doo in town. We met a Dutch woman who lives on a street near us. She started off by complaining to us about the amount of doo-doo on her street. This is a picture of the street, which she calls "Dog Sh_t Alley:"
She says she is going to talk with someone (or that she already has?) to try and get this situation cleaned up. We can't figure out if she means she is talking to the owner(s) of dogs or civic leaders, but we have noticed that her house is closed up and she has headed back to Holland where we're sure they have some sort of handy gadget that cleans the dog doo-doo right up with ultraviolet light or something. Have you noticed how all the best gadgets come from Holland?
Anyway, the civic leaders of Vaison la Romaine have taken at least some half-measures to try and address the problem of too much doo. For example, next to the post office, they recently installed a designated hygenic space for dogs. The dog is supposed to go in this little five-foot by five-foot gravel area and then the owner is supposed to scoop it up and throw it away. It's kind of like a communal cat litter box, but for dogs:
This is a nice idea, but you can tell people aren't used to it. Which is problably why it comes with instructions: (1) take a sack and a shovel given to you for this purpose (or something like that); (2) scoop the excrement; (3) deposit it in the garbage can.
The town has only one such hygenic space. And how do you get your dog to signal that they want to go to the hygenic space in the first place? Won't they just go whenever they feel like it? And how do you get there in time if you and your dog happen to be anywhere outside of about a two-block radius of the hygenic space when your dog needs to go?
As I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of dogs that wander about town with no owner or leash. They are obviously not strays. And they know exactly what they are doing and where they are going. They seem very competent.
We recently met one such dog at the bottom of the hill about 8 blocks away. She is very friendly. She has no tail, but she wags her stump. We call her Jean Bobbit (we are not sure of her actual name because she has collar but no tag). She followed us home and played with Ivy and Celina in our yard:
It was fun, but then she had to go home. We just opened the gate and sent her on her way.We think the out-of-towners are more prone than the locals to be offended by the amount of dog doo-doo in town. We met a Dutch woman who lives on a street near us. She started off by complaining to us about the amount of doo-doo on her street. This is a picture of the street, which she calls "Dog Sh_t Alley:"
She says she is going to talk with someone (or that she already has?) to try and get this situation cleaned up. We can't figure out if she means she is talking to the owner(s) of dogs or civic leaders, but we have noticed that her house is closed up and she has headed back to Holland where we're sure they have some sort of handy gadget that cleans the dog doo-doo right up with ultraviolet light or something. Have you noticed how all the best gadgets come from Holland?
Anyway, the civic leaders of Vaison la Romaine have taken at least some half-measures to try and address the problem of too much doo. For example, next to the post office, they recently installed a designated hygenic space for dogs. The dog is supposed to go in this little five-foot by five-foot gravel area and then the owner is supposed to scoop it up and throw it away. It's kind of like a communal cat litter box, but for dogs:
This is a nice idea, but you can tell people aren't used to it. Which is problably why it comes with instructions: (1) take a sack and a shovel given to you for this purpose (or something like that); (2) scoop the excrement; (3) deposit it in the garbage can.
The town has only one such hygenic space. And how do you get your dog to signal that they want to go to the hygenic space in the first place? Won't they just go whenever they feel like it? And how do you get there in time if you and your dog happen to be anywhere outside of about a two-block radius of the hygenic space when your dog needs to go?
As I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of dogs that wander about town with no owner or leash. They are obviously not strays. And they know exactly what they are doing and where they are going. They seem very competent.
We recently met one such dog at the bottom of the hill about 8 blocks away. She is very friendly. She has no tail, but she wags her stump. We call her Jean Bobbit (we are not sure of her actual name because she has collar but no tag). She followed us home and played with Ivy and Celina in our yard:
Of course, eventually Ivy will have to return to the United States where she'll have to intergrate into a more structured environment. So we are are training her. She's making progress:
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire