Dogs

There are tons of dogs in Modiin. In Baltimore, we have this huge rottweiler that lives next door to us. We also live across the street from an empty field where a lot of people go to walk their dogs. So we see plenty of dogs but that really didn't prepare me for the number of dogs that I see here. Maybe it's just that so many religious people have dogs that makes me notice it more. I'm not sure why but Jews and dogs just never went together in my mind. When I was growing up I don't remember anybody owning dogs but that's probably my selective memory. The ADDeRabbi, a resident of Modiin, linked to a post on the Seforim blog about the Jewish attitude towards pets.

Last week, I printed out some Dora coloring pages for Leora and one of the pages said to draw things that she sees on her way to school. On the way to school (on the rare occasion that we walk) we pass through this empty lot that is filled with dog poop and we need to really watch where we're going to avoid it. That's the thing that impresses her about the walk to school so she drew dog poop as one of the things she passes. She's also terrified of dogs which doesn't work so well here because we often end up at people's houses who own dogs. They always just lock them up and hopefully our hosts, who supposedly own a big dog, this Shabbos lunch will do the same.

One cool thing that I saw at one of the parks here is a big plastic bag dispenser with plastic bags that say kaki saki (loosely translated to pooper scooper) on them. If only all dog owners actually picked up after their pets. My friend, Aryeh Bak once told me that he never shakes dog owners' hands because either they're the type of people who don't clean up after their dogs so he doesn't want to associate with them or they pick up their dogs' poop and he certainly wouldn't want to shake their hands.