It’s been a good week for ... dogs
Team Murray has a new member. The tennis star's dog is set to become a published author, with a children’s book "written" by the Murrays' pet scheduled for release next year.
Border terrier Maggie May, who has a Twitter account with 28,000 followers, will put her name to How To Look After Your Human: A Dog’s Guide.
The book, penned with "assistance" from Kim Murray, explores how dogs can bond with humans and will be published by Frances Lincoln next June. The book fee will be donated to an animal welfare charity.
“Maggie Mayhem has been dispensing valuable advice to her thousands of adoring fans on Twitter and we simply couldn’t resist her wit and charm,” said publisher Rachel Williams, adding that since the dog had trained "some of the world’s most stubborn humans" (specifically her housemate, Kim), she is ideally placed to "explain the complexities of human behaviour and guide us through the ownership journey”.
Let’s hope there's a lengthy chapter on teaching owners to pick up after their dogs. Simple: if your dog defecates, get a bag and fetch.
It’s been a bad week for ... dog owners
It's clear that some humans need guidance when it comes to caring for their pets. A city in Japan is so fed up with dog fouling it is enlisting the help of a new app.
The authorities in Izumisano, in central Osaka Prefecture, are asking people to take photos of any canine mess they encounter and upload the images to a new app.
The move follows years of failed attempts to solve the city's dog dirt problem. Locals are invited to post comments detailing the scene alongside their photo submissions, and the app uses GPS location data from their smartphones to create an interactive online map, which helps the authorities keep track of problem areas, and amend the patrol routes of the city's dedicated dog poo cleaning team, known as the "uncollected poop G-men". The G-men were set up in 2012 after a string of initiatives including fines and a tax on dog owners failed to solve the problem.
Perhaps now, the poopetrators will be app-rehended.
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