The Top 3 Pet Peeves

Posted on Jan 6, 2024

tl;dr: The definition and history of the phrase, pet peeve, and three pet peeves that stand out the most, and this article's conclusion.

Updated 25 February 2023.

Content Links

Introduction
Pet Peeve #1 - Spitting in public
Pet Peeve #2 - Leaving a small pile of trash in the parking space
Pet Peeve #3 - Dog owners who don’t pick up their dog’s poop
Conclusion
Helpful Links

Introduction

I might adopt a dog and cat someday and name one of them Peeve. Just kidding about the naming part. 😁

A pet, a home companion we feed or let sleep on our bed, a warm dog or cat that snuggles next to us is unimaginable as a peeve.

An untrained dog naturally pees and poops in your home’s room, and nothing holds back their urge to excrete; accidentally stepping on stinky wet poop or a cold yellow puddle is the annoying part of owning a dog, but I wouldn’t consider those events peeves.

The cat’s poop’s sharp smell can pierce my nostrils and is the annoying part of owning a feline pet, but that smell is not a peeve.

So how is a peeve a pet?

Let’s start with the definition of pet. We know the one that means a domesticated animal we like to keep for our happiness.

Definition of pet

Merriam-Webster.com says that the noun, pet, used in the phrase in a pet can mean a fit of peevishness, sulkiness, or anger.

So, borrowing from the site’s example sentence, my version is I confronted my cousin in a pet after hearing that they had told someone else our secret..

History of the word pet

While on the Merriam-Webster.com page, I scrolled down to the Word History subtitle and read that pet probably is a back-formation from Middle English pety which means small.

The definition of petty, an adjective, means 1: having secondary rank or importance: MINOR, SUBORDINATE; 2: having little or no importance or significance; 3: marked by or reflective of narrow interests and sympathies: SMALL-MINDED.

Petty is from Middle English pety, which means small, minor, and is a modification of the word petit.

The origin of the word pet as a noun is unknown, and the word pet might have come from 16th-century Scottish and Northern English dialects.

Let’s look at the definition of peeve.

Definition of peeve

Peeve is a noun that means 1: a feeling or mood of resentment; 2: a particular grievance or source of aggravation.

History of the word peeve

The known first use of peeve as a noun was in 1909 the meaning 1: a feeling or mood of resentment.

Simply put, a pet or a petty peeve can be an insignificant small frustration, a specific aggravation that we hold close to our person that presents itself the moment a random event that we find personally annoying occurs.

What a pet peeve is to me

A child’s constant crying, a neighbor’s loud voice, and an itchy throat can annoy me, but those events aren’t pet peeves because they rarely occur, and when they do happen, they don’t infuriate me, and I don’t take them personally.

A pet peeve moment feels like unexpected bird poop suddenly splattering on my car’s newly polished windshield. When this happens, I almost always think that that bird shit on my car on purpose. 😡

I’ve listed below the three pet peeves that are bitter pills that make my eyes roll. 🙄

The leading three pet peeves

Spitting in public
Leaving a small pile of trash in the parking space
Dog owners who don’t pick up their dog’s poop

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Pet Peeve #1 - Spitting in public

I was walking in the grocery store’s parking lot toward the store.

My bespectacled eyes were squinting in the dazzling sunlight, and California buttercups were bright-eyed underneath the parking lot’s tree.

A male wearing a loose, untucked black shirt that matched his light-color baggy cargo shorts and footwear was walking away from his parked vehicle. He pocketed his keys and pulled a shopping cart from the parking lot’s cart corral.

While he pushed his cart towards the store, he turned his head to the side and spat. Gross!

The glistening, bubbled splatter sank on the ground as I walked by.

Simultaneously I thought, are you fucking kidding me? His abrupt, ugly spat rudely cut off my enjoyable casual walk.

I fought my compulsion to say aloud, dude, did you have to do that?

Then I thought, how would you feel if a visitor suddenly hawked one in your living room?

He could’ve spat instead in one of the two trash bins near the store’s entrances, but he didn’t.

What are the odds of someone inadvertently stepping on that sole blob of 99% water, mucus cells, enzymes, and antimicrobial agents?

That blob could adhere to someone’s shoe, and if they often wear shoes in their home, they can spread that blob in every room, where they might also walk barefoot! Eww! 😝

Why do some people spit in public? I don’t care if it’s learned behavior or if they get pleasure from spitting.

Have they thought of the spit all you can spit before you leave your house approach? 🤔

If you must hawk your loogie while away from home, hold it back and swallow it (There’s no harm in consuming it; it’s yours!), or leave it in a portable spit cup or a trash bin.

Spitting in public can spread viruses.

The coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19),can be transmitted through spitting.

I was happy that Long Beach, California, has a municipal code on public spitting.

9.30.030 - Public expectoration.

No person shall discharge mucus from the nose or mouth, or spit upon any sidewalk or other paved area of any park or recreation center, or upon any roque court, shuffleboard court, or other hard surfaced place set apart for the playing of any game in any park or recreation center, or upon any pier or promenade, or other public place whatsoever, or in any place where food intended for human consumption is stored, prepared, processed or served.

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Pet Peeve #2 - Leaving a small pile of trash in the parking space

Past lunchtime, after dropping off DVDs at the public library, my mom suggested we get Chinese food for lunch, so we went to her favorite Chinese takeout restaurant in a grocery store.

I parked next to a small tree that offered shade. I opened my driver-side door, and in the area where my left foot touched the ground, someone had discarded an empty cigarette box, a handful of bent cigarette butts, and an empty plastic wrap of a dried meat brand.

The sight of this ugly small heap infuriated me. I locked my car and looked for a trash bin near my parking spot but saw none.

Why would they leave their discarded trash at a parking spot to greet the next patron? 🙄

Those who litter deliberately come from every demographic. Some of the deliberate ones habitually flick their cigarette butts out of their vehicle’s window and leave behind their plastic drink containers and brown bagged takeout on parking lots.

Perhaps the trash offender’s vehicle is filled with discarded objects that spill out when they open their car door, and they don’t bother picking these up.

Don’t they care about other people and the environment? The litterbugs show us that their responsible family members and friends still need to teach them environmental obligations towards shared public places.

But sometimes unexpected events happen: an empty beer can rolls off an overflowing recyclables container, or loose paper gets tossed out in the sudden wind.

Self-made litterbugs might think misleadingly they’re helping create jobs and job security for city service and maintenance workers.

But city service and maintenance workers are not your personal cleanup crew! 👿

Cleaning up litter can be expensive. The city must pay for salaries, equipment, disposal, and environmental damage. The city needs more than litter to boost the economy.

Small piles of parking lot trash might not directly cause injuries, but the pile you leave behind might contribute to situations that lead to them.

Properly discarding trash could prevent it from falling into storm drains and flowing out into our ocean, prevent an elderly person from tripping over it, or prevent accidental puncturing of a pedestrian’s foot.

Please read through Long Beach, California’s Public Works webpage, LitterFreeLB; it gives users URLs to:

Litter-Related Bylaws and Laws,
Programs,
and Resources,
Useful Links,
Contact Public Works,
and their social media landing pages.

Be a responsible citizen; discard your trash properly.

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illustration of hamster holding up a sign

Thank you to Ricky Kharawala on Unsplash whose photo inspired my above illustration. 🙏🏼🤩

☝🏼

Pet Peeve #3 - Dog owners who don’t pick up their dog’s poop

Years ago, on a comfortable Spring day, I walked my small dog on a pathway at the back of my apartment. Three three-floor buildings surrounded the path.

He was peeing then pooing, and after my dog was kicking up unseen debris with his hind legs, I continued back toward my apartment.

Suddenly, I heard an abrupt, forceful voice above me to my right that said, “Are you going to pick that up?”

Surprised, I thought, pick what up?

I looked upward to search where the voice was coming from. In a curtained window was an elderly bespectacled female wearing large pink hair curlers.

“Pick what up?”

“Your dog’s poop,” she said gruffly.

I immediately realized that our voices sounded like we were talking through microphones.

My heart sunk in embarrassment. Oh shit, I forgot my poop bag, I thought, and I silently scolded myself. I don’t know why I didn’t carry one with me.

“Oh, well, I’ll have to get a bag.”

“Well, you can’t leave that there!” she roared.

“I’m aware of that, but I’m not going to pick up his poop with my bare hands,” I said calmly.

The elderly bespectacled neighbor didn’t utter a word.

“I’m sorry that I forgot to bring my bag. Can you please watch that no one steps on the poop? I’ll be right back.”

“You better be back!”

“Thank you!”

I picked up my dog and hurriedly strode back to my apartment, grabbed a small plastic bag and went back out toward the poop’s spot, and collected the undisturbed moist pile sunbathing in the mowed grass.

Shading my eyes with one hand, I waved a cheerful thank you to the elderly bespectacled female and her pink hair curlers, but she didn’t wave back and immediately vacated her window.

That awkward event taught me to always carry with me a dog poop bag when I walk my dog.

I’ve stepped on a few unremoved dog poop during my morning runs/walks; I absolutely hate spending my time cleaning poop off my white running shoes.

I’m happy that Long Beach, California, has a webpage about PET DEFECATION that posts the Long Beach Municipal Code (LBMC) 6.16.200 - Defecation Removal Required. I’ve quoted the first part of it below:

A. No person responsible for any animal shall permit such animal to defecate on any public sidewalk, street, improvement, park or other public place, or on any private property without the consent of the owner of such private property, unless such person responsible for the animal removes any such defecation to a proper trash receptacle.

Please click the above URL to the webpage to read the entire LBMC, and you’ll see that the site also shares URLs to: