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Kick the Bot, Fear the Dog: Street Psychology and the Coming Age of Mechanical Animals

The first time you see a sidewalk delivery bot, you smile. It is impossible not to. The thing is knee-high, usually white or pastel, rolling along on six stubby wheels like a cooler that gained sentience and decided to take itself for a walk. It carries burritos, or prescription medication, or someone’s iced latte, and it navigates curbs and crosswalks with the earnest determination of a toddler heading for a puddle. You watch it pause at an intersection, calculate its moment, and trundle forward with a confidence that borders on optimism. Your first instinct is to root for it.

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…and We Still Ended Up Feeding the Fox!

Most of rural Portuguese households rely on buckets.  Buckets for wood, water, pine cones, clothes pegs/pins – you name it there will be a bucket for it.  We all use similar types of black buckets — ownership is usually interchangeable along with the contents. Occasionally, we  halfheartedly say we will color code them with tape on the handles according to ownership — it lasts about a month before our buckets are everywhere again.

However, we have a special bucket — bright orange with a lid.  This is for our kitchen waste.  We do not compost our food waste here for several reasons.  First, the smell, and the flies amplified by the heat and, second, composting encourages rats, mice and other vermin such as foxes.  We feel most of our food waste to the chickens and they give us eggs in return.

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The Respect Owed to Military Dogs

Once in awhile I will be on the subway and I will see a person entering the subway station with a dog walking in front of them and just as I am about to think to myself that it seems odd that the person is bringing a dog with them in a place where dogs usually are not allowed, I see that the dog is wearing a jacket that marks it as a service dog, meaning that the dog is being useful in some way to that person — we called them “Seeing Eye Dogs” when I was growing up.

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Doggy Doo and Puppy Pee On Your Doorstep

Is there anything worse than walking along a public city sidewalk and stepping in doggy doo or slipping on puppy pee?  Why are so many dog owners irresponsible in taking care of their pets?

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Deducting the Cat

As medicine advances to not only heal humans, but the pet population as well, we should begin to wonder what makes a family and how we want our federal government to respond to the needs and wishes of everything that makes up the “family unit.”

Continue reading → Deducting the Cat