Here in New England, fall is in full swing. Fall is one of, if not my favorite season. I love the cool, crisp days filled with bright sunshine, and the beauty of the trees as they ready themselves to shed their leaves in preparation for winter.

The problem is, once those trees drop those leaves and cover the ground, they can become pretty dangerous, especially to dogs.

Where I live, the town collects the leaves in the fall, which means people pile their leaves on the side of the street for the town to collect them. My neighborhood doesn’t have sidewalks, so we walk on the side of the road, right alongside (or in) the leaves.

Last week I watched a neighbor raking her leaves, while her small grandson buried himself in them, and it hit me, leaves can be dangerous for kids too! Hence the (and kids) in the title.

But they’re leaves, and they’re pretty, how can they be dangerous, you ask.

There’s danger in these here leaves.

Things to be aware of, when walking your dog (or kid) near leaves.

• Food – When you have a Labrador with a nose for food, you really have to be watchful around leaves. Some of the people in this neighborhood haven’t gotten the memo about not feeding bread to the birds! Last week Sampson dove into a pile of leaves and came out with a wad of bread that I had to wrestle away from him. And just yesterday, Delilah came up with a cookie. A cookie! Who the hell tosses out a cookie? One would hope that a child knows better than to dig a cookie up out of a leave pile and pop it in their mouth, BUT Halloween was on Monday night, and clumsy cold little fingers could have easily dropped a candy bar. I don’t know many dogs, or kids that can resist a candy bar. For that matter, it might be tempting to some of the adults I know.

Is that a cookie I smell?

• Curbs/Holes – Leaves can be hiding curbs or pot holes. With Sampson’s bad leg, I’m constantly worried about him stepping off a curb wrong, or twisting his leg in a hole. He’s actually fallen coming down off a curb, talk about heart stopping.  The good thing is, dog’s are like that drunk at the club, who falls down and pops right back up…”I’m okay.”
• Sharp Objects – I’m not just talking sticks here either. Our recycle guy apparently isn’t all that accurate with the automatic bin lever. Many times I’ve found broken glass on the sides of the streets. Now, when I come home and find a mess in front of MY house, I clean it up. But most of my neighbors do not. No, those lazy asses leave it right where it fell. And those little pieces can easily get covered up by the leaves and an unsuspecting dog or child can wind up with glass in a paw or appendage. Take it from the woman who had to go to the podiatrist to have a piece of glass dug out of her foot. It’s no fun.
• Insects – I’m specifically talking here about fleas and ticks. Ticks feed only at certain temperatures, (they don’t care for the really hot and humid, nor do they feed in the winter.) They prefer the cooler days in spring and fall. Monday, I noticed a tiny black spot on Samspon’s head, I reached out and picked it off and it was tick. (FTR he got a nice swim in some alcohol. The tick, not Sampson!) We have our yard sprayed for fleas and ticks AND because of his bad leg, Sampson hadn’t been out back, so really the only place he could have gotten it, was on our morning walk. I’m sure there’s spiders and worms in there too!  Spiders and worms and ticks, OH MY!
• Animal Eliminations – Ewww!  Yeah, I know it’s gross to even think about, but it’s not just MY dogs that pee/poop in leaves. All dogs like to check their pee-mail and leave a reply. And,  other animals can eliminate there as well. There are number of diseases that can be transmitted by rodent droppings and Leptospirosis is on the rise in the wildlife population. Those to me are good reasons to keep my dogs out of the leaves.

Peed on ’em, now I just gotta walk away.

• Animals – While it’s not likely that a fox or bear is going to jump out of the leaves at you, smaller animals, such as mice and chipmunks can certainly be hiding or nesting there. Especially the chipmunks in our neighborhood; I swear those little bastards get their jollies out of antagonizing my dogs. Ever get your arm dislocated because your dog saw a mouse or chipmunk? Yeah, it’s no fun. Now, imagine being dragged down the street through a pile of leaves filled with food, glass, bugs, animals and poop.

Talk about a bad day.

Leaves can also be slippery both when they are dry AND wet, as a rule of thumb, I try to avoid them as much as possible. How about you? Do you let your dogs/kids play in the leaves, or are you like me, and try to avoid them?