Groom is on Clement near 10th - a street with many interesting shops and restaurants.

Usually I enjoy car rides because we’re going somewhere I like or at least find interesting.  However, occasionally that’s not the case – the best example is a short trip that comes every 6-8 weeks – I can sense the neighborhood and then see the signage at Groom, which is just what you think.   That means I need to spend 4-5 hours in the queue and on the table getting my soft coat trimmed.  It’s not a terribly long day and Nona and the other folks at Groom are very nice but, let’s face it, waiting around for a haircut isn’t as much fun as a lot of other things.

Slurpy and me at the garage sale - she's very cuddly but hard to keep still!

That was last Thursday…on Saturday, my guardians had a garage/furniture sale along with several neighbors.  It was a success as our house outplaced several furniture items that were from way back and other items as well.  I had a very nice time, lounging around on the cool, shaded sidewalk and retreating to my window seat inside our home when things got too routine or tiresome.  Some of my friends came by including Slurpy and Micky Lee, both from just across the street.  My guardians’ friends and our neighbors like
me, so I got a lot of good strokes that day.

Flowers we passed in Golden Gate Park on our way to and from Pet Pride Day.

On Sunday we went over to Golden Gate Park for Pet Pride Day, an outdoor expo in Sharon Meadow for pets and their guardians.  There were vendors for everything imaginable.  Leashes were mandatory, plus there was a blaring PA systems and hot sun, so we didn’t stay long.  Nonetheless, it was educational for my guardians, in part because they learned about a planning process in San Francisco that is threatening to make the city-owned parks less pet-friendly.  This information came from http://sfdog.org, an umbrella organization for over 20 dog groups in San Francisco.  Comments on the EIR (Environmental Impact Report) were due on Halloween and it is fortunate SFDOG provided sample comments so concerned citizens could more efficiently express themselves.  If you’d like to take a nap, the 562 page EIR (not counting appendices) is (at this moment) at http://www.sf-planning.org/index.aspx?page=1828.  It’s Item # is 2005.1912E.

For 2011, this is the second EIR that has had SFDOG and its stakeholders including
myself seriously agitated.  The earlier one was floated by Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA), a National Park Service managed recreation area, much of which borders on San Francisco.   This EIR concerned GGNRA’s desire for a more restrictive dog policy in the national RECREATION area – -since this post is already a bit “heavy,” I’ll comment on GGNRA in a future blog and also post my letter to the NPS.

In the meantime, for an overview of dogs’ growing stature in the discourse in San Francisco, I can suggest this article on our new DogPac:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/us/they-bark-they-fetch-and-their-humans-vote.html