Middle NZ: Don't leave your dog's mess behind

Be a responsible dog owner and clean up after your pet. Photo / File

When I was a child, my brother and I used to play tennis on the road outside our house.

The cries of "here comes a car" were few and far between back then.

Three weeks ago, I wouldn't have recommended this game to anyone in Hawke's Bay. However, since lockdown, it has become possible again.

Hardly a car drives past the house, although there was some lunatic in a black car roaring past over the weekend.

It's the perfect time to get the tennis rackets out and have a game.

People in my neighbourhood have been very busy and inventive. One neighbour further down the street was in the middle of the road, kicking a football to the others in his bubble on his front lawn.

I heard a trumpet being played on Monday and, although I couldn't see who was playing it, I heard him yell out 'Good morning, Hawke's Bay ... all is well here". Brilliant.

Around the corner, some children have been creative with chalk on the footpath. There's hopscotch and a mini exercise course. There's a start line, then smiley faces and left, right places for your feet, hop on one foot here and sprint when you get to this space — excellent work, whoever created it.

However, the other thing I came across in my neighbourhood on Sunday morning wasn't nice at all.

There have been so many texts to the paper and messages on social media about dog owners not cleaning up after their pets.

This was really brought home to me by a sign on someone's lawn that said: "This dog poo is going in your letterbox".

Goodness, I thought, they are really cross, and then I looked down and the dog poo was all over the footpath. It was disgusting.

I managed to avoid standing in it and could understand why the resident was so mad.

There simply is no excuse for this. If you have run out of bags, improvise. Take a pooper scooper with you and an empty container of some sort — the recycling hasn't been collected in Hastings since the lockdown, so I'm sure people could find something to use.

Now for something a bit nicer — Easter. It's going to be an Easter we will never forget and one we all hope we never have to go through again.

Linda Hall, Assistant Editor, Hawke's Bay Today.

Easter weekend is traditionally a time when families and friends gather. It will be hard this year but we have no choice. The more we stay at home now, the sooner we will all be able to go out again. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said we appear to be on track. We have to hold our nerve.

Many Hawke's Bay businesses are relying on all of us to follow the rules so they can open again.

It's a very strange world we live in at the moment. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would be grounded again, that I wouldn't be able to jump in my car and go and see my family, I never imagined I would be in my own backyard, picking up feijoas wearing gloves.

But here we are — it's not forever though and we are all in it together.

As one of my granddaughters is fond of saying — we got this. Take care out there.

Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today.