Q: We have four large dogs and cleaning up after they have done their business is an issue. Currently, we use plastic bags to clean up after them in the yard and during walks. But then we place those bags in the garbage and off to the landfill they go. We are hoping you or your readers can offer a greener solution as to what to do with all their poop.

A: I am sure that everybody has a different opinion on this issue, but this is what I did when I had a houseful of eight large dogs. I created a “dog potty” in my backyard that is basically a large square gravel bed that I trained my dogs to relieve themselves on. Next to this spot I buried a Doggie Dooley, which is basically a bottomless trash can buried in the ground with a tight fitting lid. Every day I just picked up the poop off the gravel and dropped it in the Doggie Dooley where it breaks down and disappears. To me, this seems like the most green solution. However, I must confess that when I took my dogs for walks through the neighborhood, I just bagged it and tossed it as you described, to be taken to a landfill.

The bulk of poop bags sold these days in pet stores are considered to be biodegradable and do break down in time, but some take longer than others. The bags made of corn are more expensive but break down the fastest. With small dogs that use Wee-Wee pads indoors, flushing the poop away is a fine solution.

One thing that everyone seems to be in agreement with is that dog poop should never be composted and used as fertilizer for vegetables meant for human consumption.

Q: There is a cat lady on our block who feeds the stray cats in the neighborhood, and it seems that this attracts raccoons to our block as well. Do I have to worry about my Chihuahua, as we let her out into the yard at night and some of these raccoons are three times her size.

A: If you asked me this question two months ago, I would have said that a raccoon that is well fed on cat food would most likely not bother with a dog — even a little dog like you have. However, I just went through a horrible experience that changed my mind about what raccoons are capable of.

For 15 years, we had a pet Tasmanian black swan that lived freely in our backyard. Her name was Giselle, and she hated me but was devoted to my wife. She was a huge bird and when she was mad at me, she could hit me with her wings so hard that I would be knocked flat out with stars going round my head.

We had a little straw-filled shed that had an open door where she slept at night, and there never was a problem with raccoons in all these years. We have a neighbor that feeds stray cats as well, and the resident raccoons are so well fed that they do not even bother with opening the trash cans anymore. However, the other night poor Giselle was killed by a raccoon, and I have no idea why or how it happened. It was a fierce battle judging by what I saw in the morning, and I never would have thought that a raccoon could overpower such a strong bird like a black swan. So my point is to never underestimate what a raccoon can do. Be sure your dog is vaccinated for rabies and keep floodlights in your backyard when the little dog is out there at night so you can monitor the situation.

Q: We have a ferret, a Chihuahua and a Maltipoo, and all three are great friends. They romp and play together whenever we let the ferret out of his cage. The ferret does go to the dogs’ dishes and helps himself to their kibble when he has the opportunity, and we were wondering if this is OK for him.

A: A small amount of dog kibble here and there is not going to hurt a ferret, but do not let the ferret eat so much of it that its appetite gets satiated and it does not eat as much of its own food as it normally would.

Ferrets need a lot more protein and fat than dogs do, and too much dog food can skew the ferret’s metabolism out of balance. Another issue is their teeth. Ferrets have very thin teeth that break easily, and for this reason kibble made for ferrets is quite soft and easy to break up. Crunching on hard dog kibble can cause a ferret to break off one of its eyeteeth, and when this happens, a nasty abscess can develop in the mouth.