Jan

4

Dog Poo

Filed Under Home Management, Pet Care, Society & Culture | 7 Comments


There are three reasons why a dog lover like me doesn’t own ein Hund right now: first, it’s not allowed in our apartment block to have pet dogs (a case of double standard, really, since the lady caretaker and her husband do have a Jack Russell terrier); second, owning another dog after the death of my dog Cha-Cha is an emotional investment I’m quite hesitant to make again; third, I can’t see myself picking up dog poo even though Switzerland has an effective dog pooh disposal system called Robidog.

The first impediment is quite easy to hurdle. One just have to move to another apartment block where regulations on owning pets are more loose.

The second one, albeit not a logistical issue but an emotional one, can still be resolved if I get to “meet” a dog similar to Cha-Cha — if not in appearance, in behavior at least.

However, the third point is probably the main reason why I don’t relish the idea of owning a pet dog sometime soon (I’m currently a space-deprived apartment dweller here in Switzerland). I’ve seen how Swiss dog owners have cleaned the mess of their pets on the pavements using those plastic bags taken from those ubiquitous Robidog plastic-bag dispensers, and I must say, it’s vicariously a yucky experience for me. (Cha-Cha was such a low maintenance dog; she used to dig a hole in the ground in my Mom’s garden every time she had to “go to the toilet” to relieve herself. She would then cover her excrements with sand or soil.)

But it’s impressive how the Swiss keep the streets clean with this Robidog system. It requires strong discipline — and if I may add, tested immunity to dog poo smell — on the part of dog owners.

So here’s to a dog poo-free environment. (Photo taken from Wikipedia)

*****

FIVE THINGS TO BE HAPPY ABOUT:

1) Friendly French-speaking postman
2) Sister on a three-month visit
3) A Flickr Pro account
4) Microcassette recorder
5) Wearing a pair of red Keds sneakers

Apr

17

‘Rovalert’ Search

Filed Under Family & Friends, Pet Care, Society & Culture, Swissness, The Philippines | 7 Comments

The sound of barking dogs in the neighborhood has been eluding me ever since Friday morning, the time when my jetlag was at its worst. Instead, chirping birds now do me the great (dis)honor of waking me up in the early mornings.

It can only mean one thing: I’m back in Switzerland where pet dogs, it seems, are trained not to bark. Like their masters, Swiss-owned dogs are just as taciturn. (I read somewhere that dog owners in Switzerland have to make sure that their pets don’t bark so as not to “disturb the public.” This means that there are lots of repressed dogs in this country.)

I can’t remember any Swiss incident wherein I’ve heard the sound of a “rovalert,” a term which basically means “a system whereby one dog can quicky establish an entire neighborhood of barking.” (The word was coined in the ’80s by Rich Hall and his friends of the humor book Sniglets.)

When I told a Filipino friend about the non-existence of mass dog-barking sounds in Switzerland during my recent trip to Manila, she just couldn’t believe it. Probably because Filipinos are so used to the sound of rovalerts coming from both stray dogs and owned ones — be it deep in the night or in the early hours of the day. It’s a kind of noise already embedded in the human psyche of Pinoys. In other words, it’s normal. But not here in noise-sensitive Switzerland. Barking dogs are not a daily occurence.

And while my husband claims that the sound of chirping birds is “music to our ears,” in the deep recesses of my heart, I long to hear the familiar sound of Pinoy rovalerts. I guess in some respects, I’m way too Filipino for Swiss comfort.

RANDOM TIP: If you’re a balikbayan (a Philippine national residing abroad) who’s currently enjoying a holiday in the Philippines, take in the sound of rovalerts with gusto. It’s a unique audio experience in itself.

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