The landing outside my apartment smells like a wet dog. There are no dogs in my building.

I'm not saying that in a general sense, either -- I know wet dogs are the sort of thing that is frequently referenced in describing a bad smell, along with "burnt hair", "sour milk", and "dung".  But no, this smells very specifically like a wet dog.  But as I said, it's not a dog from around here, and I don't recall seeing a dog on the premises.  But this is a concentrated smell, and it's been there for a few days now.

Which has led me to the following conclusion: somebody has been to this apartment building with a dog and a bucket.  Said person has dipped the dog into the bucket, then proceeded to rub the animal liberally upon the walls and floor like a sponge. It's the only way.  The question is, who?  My first thought was that some dog is trying to mark its territory, but what dog marks territory using another dog?  That defeats the purpose.  (Also, the whole sponge scenario is unlikely -- a dog couldn't do that, having no opposable thumbs.)

So no, it has to be a human.  A human making an apartment building smell like a dog -- to what end?  I can only think that somebody wants somebody's dog to think, "well, this is already another dog's turf."  It seems like a long way to go to fool a dog, especially a dog who probably shouldn't be here for much less arcane reasons than that.

So that's it -- some kind of human-promoted dog gang warfare is going to happen in this part of town.  Either that, or there's something that smells like a dog, but is not a dog.  Terrifying! 

(There's an old window screen leaning against the wall.  I can't see how that would smell like a dog.)

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