A regular summary of irregular news and notes from neighborhood blogs and email lists around the District.

Leash Yourself: On the Shepherd Park email list, a member posts this screed, “‘Aggressive behavior’ is some combination of a dog that runs up to a perfect stranger, causing you to lose your balance and fall, sometimes causing injury and nips at your feet, maybe jumps on you and or bites you. This is okay? Some people, perhaps yourself, may not consider these as aggressive forms of behavior. Maybe it is unfair to imply dog owners are criminals for not having their dog on a leash in Rock Creek Park when the ‘law’ is technically a regulation. Instead I will just call it rude behavior, at minimum. Based on other responses on the [email list] other people have obviously run into aggressive dogs including my wife. You just haven’t seen any. The probability there have never been aggressive dogs in the park is zero. You’re lucky.” He continues, “The National Park Service regulation is that all dogs in Rock Creek Park must be on a leash, aggressive or not. There are signs in the park about this. Unfortunately the regulation is unenforceable. Park rangers and police are not going to patrol the trails and some people just don’t care what the regulation is.”

Drop Dead Squirrel: “Neighbors: I just noticed something appalling and thought I’d let the others know in case this is a repeat event. I have also notified the 2nd District Police,” writes a member of the Tenleytown email list. “Just now as I was walking my dog and baby, I noticed a man step out of his SUV and drop a dead squirrel out of a plastic newspaper bag onto someone’s lawn. He then threw the bag down the sewer and drove off in his SUV. This dead black squirrel was left at the NE corner of Chesapeake and 49th streets NW.” “Maybe this is advertising for his new punk band ‘The Dead Squirrels,'” writes one member. Another says, “This is strange. I had a dead black squirrel on my front yard last weekend. Right under my front tree. I took a picture of it and didn’t touch it. Was planning to pick it up later for disposal. Next day it was gone. I thought it was the neighbors’ cat who took it.”

Steel Wooled: In a thread titled, “Yikes, Mice!” a member of the Chevy Chase email list writes, “After our renovation, we have noticed some evidence of mice in our basement. Does anyone recommend a company that can deal with this effectively without poison (cat sneaks down there). I called Western Termite and Pest, but they don’t seem to work in this area. Any other suggestions?” Members suggest glue traps and letting the cat in the basement anyway, but one writes, “No one has metioned how to keep more mice from coming back in. You will need to find where they are coming in and stuff steel wool in the holes. That is the only thing they can’t chew through and it seems to work very well. You can buy steel wool cheaply at hardware stores and maybe even Giant, etc.”

Stranger Danger: “I was at N. Michigan Playground yesterday with my 8 year old and 5 year old. My 8 year old came up to me and said there was a three year old at the playground by himself. I asked the 3 year old where his parents were. He said his mom was at home and his dad was ‘working out.’ About 30 to 45 minutes later a man came out of the rec center, and appeared to be his father. I left, but was disturbed by the incident,” recounts a member of the Brookland Kids email list. They ask, “Is there anything someone could do in this case?” Presently, no members have offered advice.