Editor:
In response to Joan Payne’s letter, (Coast Reporter, Jan. 20) and her statement, “I just don’t understand why supportive housing does not allow companion animals”, let me count the whys.
While I agree with everything Joan had to say about the support and comfort pets bring to their owners, as a tenant of Greenecourt, I am grateful for the no-pets-allowed policy. There are 65 suites in this building and I shudder to think of the chaos numerous pets coming and going, all day long, would create.
This is senior housing and many of the tenants have mobility issues, which make walking their dogs at regular intervals difficult. Not all pet owners are responsible with proper training and/or grooming. Dogs stink, especially if they’re not bathed regularly and especially when they’re wet. Our hallways are carpeted and dirty paw prints, wet hairy shakes and the possibility of fleas and ticks being carried into the building are unacceptable in my opinion. My sister lives in a high rise that does allow pets and they’re having a problem with pet owners whose pets, for whatever reason, defecate and urinate in the elevator and lift their leg to the furniture in the lobby.
Greenecourt is not particularly soundproof, our hallways not particularly wide and our suites small. Dogs can be “barkers” at anything and everything that moves in the hallways. Greenecourt has shared laundry facilities and, speaking from experience, there’s nothing more irritating than removing your laundry from the washing machine covered in cat and/or dog hair.
To be fair, one cannot compare inanimate comfort needs to living, breathing pets with all their idiosyncrasies, which unfortunately may infringe upon other people’s space in shared housing.
C. Bystedt, Sechelt
