Welcome to Colleen’s Corner. This is a column meant for fun and some information About myself: I am a Freelance Photographer you often see me on the side of the road or in various places taking photos of different things animals, birds, places, people etc. l have lived in Lumby for over 8 years, you have seen my photos in the newspaper (Lumby Valley Times) and once in awhile in the Vernon Morning Star, and the Lumby Art Gallery. Photography is my passion. Disclaimer: The information on some of my photos that I write about a lot of times come from the Internet or books I research them, hopefully the facts are as close to the truth as I can come.
By Colleen Fielding
Have you been to the Monashee Family Park lately, it’s a beautiful park and now they have added swings for the kids. It’s a nice walk along the trails, you can take the short ones or the longer trails. It’s got a great dog park, and parts along some of the trails where your dog can be off leash.
When I go there I see a lot of dogs happily running around, some dogs stay near their owners, some dogs don’t. Some of the owners are paying attention to their dogs as they should be doing, while other owners are on their phones, or other things and not paying attention to their dogs. Along the walkways and trails they have “FREE DOG WASTE BAGS” ! Here is what elseI see when I go to the park, dog feces on the ground because the owners did not pick up their dogs poop, YUCK!
Dog poop is everywhere along the walkways and trails and it’s in the dog park as well. I hate when I step in your dog’s poop it gets stuck in between the treads of my running shoes. It is so damn hard to clean out! This is very maddening, my blood pressure goes up because I am so mad about this. On one of my pairs of shoes the poop was so stuck in the treads no matter what I did I couldn’t clean it out. I threw my shoes in one of the garbage cans at the park and came home shoeless. You might laugh at this, but if it happens to you stepping into someone else’s dog poop I bet you will be pretty mad about it too. I go for a walk not only because it’s good for me, but it also makes me feel good and relaxed it helps to release the happy endorphin called “Beta- Endorphin, but when I step in your dog’s poop because you were too lazy to clean it up, so much for my happy relaxed walk!
Do you clean up the dog poop in your own yard, I hope so, or do you wait and take your dog somewhere else and let it poop there so that you feel like you don’t have to clean it up? That is not only disgusting, but illegal. Do you know you can face a fine from $100.00-$1,000 the Village of Lumby and RDNO has a bylaw called “Poop and Scoop” It doesn’t matter where your dog goes to the bathroom, on the streets and or the parks you have to clean it up.
When taking your dog out somewhere no matter where you go, even if your dog is off leash, pay attention to your dog and have enough respect for yourself and everyone else to clean up your dog’s poop. If you don’t have enough consideration to clean up after your dog, then you really shouldn’t own a dog.
Lumby has some very beautiful areas where you can take your dog to. Parks, trails, mountains etc. Let’s help to keep Lumby beautiful for the people that live here and the people that come to visit, clean up after your dogs.
