He was sitting on the kerb in the sun as we approached.
He saw the beagle and looked up at me nervously.
“Is she…?” he began.
“The friendliest dog in the world? Yes.” I replied, smiling.
He relaxed, visibly.
“Unless…” I began.
He stiffened again.
“Unless you’re a squirrel,” I said. “But you don’t look like a squirrel.”
We’ve covered the dangers of antibiotic resistance on the the blog many times before.
We’ve covered the dangers of unhygienic pets on the blog many times before.
Now, some rocket surgeons at Glasgow Poly Caledonian University have put the two together with some groundbreaking research:
I hope you are all sitting down, because the advice in this article is pretty shocking stuff, and may make you immediately rethink how intimately you’ve been living your life with your household pet.
I’m talking about near-incredible recommendations like:
Avoid kissing pets on the mouth
Seriously, just avoid kissing pets full stop.
Don’t let them pets lick your mouth or nose
This is basically french-kissing pets. It’s also to be avoided full stop.
And the nose fetish thing? Eww. No.
Pet owners should wash hands after stroking animals, particularly before meals
WHO KNEW?!?!?
WHO?!?!? KNEW?!?!?
Make sure pets eat from their own bowls and don’t use household utensils
I’m going to be a bit sick now.
And this from a guy whose beagle can’t even use a knife and fork anyway.
At least they stopped short of suggesting that you also always use a condom.
(At least, I hope they did: I haven’t read the whole paper yet.)
It really seems like these things shouldn’t need to be said to humans. We’re literally the most intelligent species on earth, and that’s why we really shouldn’t need to be reminded or warned not to snog our canines who were literally chewing on some faeces they found on the pavement just five minutes ago.
It’s also why household pets shouldn’t be allowed into establishments serving or selling food. It’s not about me being mean to your French Bulldog, it’s just about basic common sense and decent hygiene. It’s about your poor choices putting other people’s health at risk.
Honestly, you people disgust me.
Normally, I’d put this sort of thing into the Darwin Awards category: removing oneself from the gene pool through one’s own stupidly reckless behaviour. But that doesn’t work here, because sadly, this might – might – not actually finish you off, but it will lead to the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria which – as I mentioned above – might finish other people off.
Now, thanks to this “new” research from Dr Adele Dickson et al., we’re able to actually demonstrate that your disgusting behaviour is bad for the human race in general.
Thus, for the good health of humanity, please stop this sort of stuff immediately. Ugh.
Feeling a bit better today. Still a bit short on energy, but I guess I didn’t eat anything for 36 hours, so that’s to be expected.
I’m catching up with all the stuff I missed yesterday: we’ve already been down onto the beach and cleaned out the rockpool (very limited numbers of anything exciting considering the size of the tide).
There’s more to do too, so please accept this quota photo of the beagle atop the Franschhoek Pass on our way down here.
Not bad for a phone photo of an animal that hates having its photo taken. (B)eagle-eyed viewers may spot some photoshopping because the lead attached to the dog really detracted from the overall image. But then, if the lead hadn’t have been there, the lack of dog would have been an equally large problem.
I’ve been watching football all afternoon and it’s been lovely*.
I do recognise that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, though.
But then, some people beagles have weird taste.
* Sheffield United 1-0 QPR
By the third of January, you’d expect the crowds of visitors to start receding. We’ve had the festivities of Christmas and the excitement of New Year and there’s real life waiting just around the corner.
But no. Yesterday afternoon, the local car park was as full as I have ever seen it, with cars from Cape Town, Swellendam, the Free State and Limpopo. The reason, I suspect, was the fresh southeaster which had stirred up a sandy gunk, thus:
This “ginger beer water”, I have been told, makes for excellent fishing, and so a billion fishermen had descended onto what I quite reasonably call “my beach”. The rocks were suddenly full of Klipdrift and swearing, discarded tackle and raucous laughter.
I never saw these people when I was out there in the driving rain of two days ago winter.
Also out in full force were the SANParks officials, clipboards in hand, lanyards fluttering in the wind, checking permits and observing catch size. (Although for all the promise, I never saw a single fish being landed.)
It’s weird that the guys in green are never there when the perlemoen poachers are at work (now there’s a group that doesn’t care about the weather), but I guess they can’t be everywhere at once.
The wind is forecast to drop today, and so all the fishermen will likely disappear too, leaving the beach for just me and the beagle, as it should be.