And now, a word about dog poop.  If it was just one or two dogs, it wouldn't be a problem.  When people bring their dogs to the park, they only see one or two dogs, and they might think it won't hurt anything if they don't pick up after their dogs.  Well, it's not just one or two dogs leaving a mess.  It's dozens every day.   Dogs like to use their noses, especially my youngest, and he points out every pile of poop on our usual two mile walking loop.  It's a lot.  I mean, like, alarming.  When you actually notice how much canine feces there is in one little neighborhood, and you multiply that by all the little neighborhoods in the Puget Sound watershed, that is a mountain of poop.  No wonder the whales are sickly and declining. 

Walking along the trail in Eagle Landing Park, you can't go ten feet without encountering a pile of crap.  If you don't look down along the edge of the trail, you might not notice it.  I have to watch the edge of the trail because I have to make sure that none of my four dogs eats a cigarette butt or any other detritus along the way.  Especially on days with sunny weather, I'm looking at a parade of poop.  Maybe this has something to do with my general dislike of people.  Once you get to the beach, you are going to find poop there as well even though the tide washes it away twice a day. 

Cleaning up after a dog isn't the most fun thing in the world, but if you adopted or bought a dog, that's what you singed up for.  It's a shame that, after reading Jennifer Hahn's book on foraging, I can't sample a little bit of the seaweed in Eagle Landing Park just to see what it tastes like.  The ducks and the fish and the little crabs and sea creatures don't have a choice.  They have to feed in these shallow waters no matter how much dog poop washes into their home.  And it all washes down there eventually.  Even if you let your dog out into your back yard and don't clean up after him, it ends up in the storm drain and eventually empties into the Sound. 

Many people let their dogs swim in the Sound at Eagle Landing Park, regardless of the leash law.  If you do let your dog swim there, that's even more reason to clean up after your dog.  Puget Sound is a cesspool.  Besides the dog waste, there is all the oil from dripping cars, the equivalent of an Exxon Valdez oil spill every other year.  Also, all the brake dust from a million cars winds up in the sound, with copper and other toxins.  If you let your dog swim in the Sound, be sure to give him a bath later.  And clean up after your dog.