Weather Check

The weather is still typical for January.  They say that we are having a milder than average winter so far but I don't exactly believe them.  Still, the snowdrops are blooming early and we have had so far no noticeable snow.  Already we are entering into the slightly warmer (or less cold) half of January.  We haven't had a long deep freeze where people can skate on ponds and lakes and get away with it and yes, Gentle Reader, we have had many such winters in Vancouver with such prolonged cold snaps.  Already I see catkins dangling suggestively (dare I say lewdly) from the thin branches of the hazel bush.

The air says that it is still winter, it is clean, lovely and bracing.  All day it has been overcast beginning this morning with a temperature of -1 C.  and rising to around 6.  This morning I was walking in the West End and was saddened to see the condition of the grass at Barclay Heritage Square Park:

This is how it looked before the neighbourhood dogs destroyed it.  There are a number of irresponsible and selfish dog owners here in Vancouver who really don't care how much their four legged progeny inconvenience others.  This is not an off-leash dog park.  Now it looks like a battlefield.  There is not one square foot of undestroyed turf left on this park.  It is worse than an eyesore.  It is, if I dare go on about this first world problem, a tragedy. 

It is not simply tragic that something beautiful has been destroyed because of the selfishness of others.  It also suggests to me how unhealthy and anti-communitarian has become our culture's modish obsession with canines.  I am not against dogs and not against having a pet.  However, in this city notorious for its unfriendliness and street vistas of pedestrians so obsessed with their I-phones that they never notice that they might be stepping in, dare I say, dog shit, I really wonder if many of us have opted to replace human contact with having a dog.  It stands to reason.  While looking after a dog can be very much like being stuck for sixteen years caring for a three year old child (with a cat its like having a permanent teenager) barmy dog owners will often rhapsodize about the unconditional love they get from their hairy babies. 

This is a cruel burden to dump on a poor dumb animal.  As if so many of us have so given up on the possibility of having healthy and fulfilling human relationships.  Now I do understand and agree that many dog owners are indeed well connected socially with lovely and fulfilling marriages, relationships, family ties and friendships.  I also concur that there are others who have so despaired of finding true love or real friendship that, well, to quote that famous bumper sticker from the Seventies: "The more people I meet, the more I love my dog."  I am even under the impression that it is the more dysfunctional, problematic dog owners who tend to use their pets to abuse public space as these ones.