I always discover it while driving. An…odor. Yesterday, though, it was different, and it threw me off. It was the smell of old vomit. You know…remember in Boy Scouts when you had to sleep in the tent that the kid last summer puked in? That smell. And it wasn’t consistent. It came and went.
I forgot about it until this morning…20 minutes into my commute it was there again. Wait, no…not so pukey this time…more like…
Shit.
Dog shit.
When I got to work, I checked the bottom of my shoe. Yup, there it was. Dog shit.
I went outside and found a hose and rinsed the shoe for a while, spraying my ass as much as the shoe. I thought I got it, but what I really did was reinvigorate the last remnants. Instant shit; just add water. I could smell it off and on during the day.
When I got home I scrubbed the last of it off with a toothbrush and soapy water.
In my mind, there is no gray area. It’s black and white. You either pick up your dog’s shit, or you ARE shit.
Please tell me you got rid of the toothbrush after.
I agree with this mundane and pointless pitting. I have a particular dislike for the people who simply cover up their dog’s shit with snow in the winter, as if it will just melt away in the spring like the snow does. What really happens is you end up with a ton of thawed-out dog shit lining the sidewalks and filling the spring air with a lovely dog-shitty stench. The people responsible for this should be forced to clean it up with their own toothbrushes, to be used at least once for their intended purposes after!
I’m right there with ya. Some people seem to think that such courtesies do not apply to them. And it doesn’t matter how big or little your dog is. Shit on the shoe is shit on the shoe.
As a responsible dog owner, I find this selfish practice particularly despicable because it gives me and other No Poop Left Behind dog owners a bad image.
I live in a nice neighborhood; some people purposely drive here and park, to either walk themselves and/or their dogs. Throughout our community, on nice green and white wood posts, there are containers which dispense biodegradable poop bags.
I have had a couple confrontations with assholes who regularly motor in, park their car, watch their dog poop, then leave without cleaning up.
Mundane and pointless it may seem, but it’s these little things that diminish all of us.
I couldn’t agree more. I not only pick up my dogs’ shit, I pick up other people’s dogs’ shit when I encounter it.
I actually had every conscientious dog owner’s dream come true earlier this spring. I was walking the dogs and saw a woman’s Lab take a dump at the edge of the greenspace in the neighborhood then just walk on. I grabbed a poo bag, picked up the steamer, quickened our pace and caught up to her. I said, “Excuse me, ma’am, your dog dropped this,” and handed her the bag of shit.
I don’t know if the mortified look on her face was because she thought no one had seen or because the big stranger with the mastiff handed her a sack of shit, but it’s a moment and a look I hope I never forget.
You know what’s worse than people who don’t pick it up?
People who bag it then sling the bag into a nearby hedge or tree. In some places around here, there are places that look like they’re prepared for the dog shit version of Christmas.
You know what’s worse than people who don’t clean after their dogs shit on the sidewalk, which is bad enough?
People who think they’re being clever and let their dogs shit in between parked cars, a place where you’re less likely to be thinking about stepping in shit while you’re walking between parked cars to cross the street or get to your car door and get in.
I never knew such a practice existed until I moved here (north FL.)
I’ll see the random bag thrown here and there, but also one particular person does this regularly. I once picked 25 little bags out of a nearby hedge.
To make such a show of virtuously bagging the poop, only to furtively toss it into the bushes when nobody’s looking.:rolleyes:
A neighbor and I keep talking about how enlightening it would be to set up a Poop Cam.
Public scorn and ridicule is the least that these assholes deserve.
Thing is, they know that it’s the wrong thing to do, because they wait until there’s no-one around. I think that’s why, despite all the dog-owners, there’s virtually no dogshit on the streets of New York City.
We’re in New York right now, staying at our friends’ apartment and looking after their dog while they’re on vacation. We walk him a couple of times a day, and always make sure we take at least a couple of plastic bags out with us. It’s really not very hard to scoop it up and put it in a trash can.
But, even if we wanted to leave the shit on the ground, the fact is that there are always lots of people on the streets here–even when we go out late in the evening or early in the morning–and any attempt to leave dogshit lying on the sidewalk would no doubt induce at least half a dozen New Yorkers to yell “Clean that shit up.” In the week we’ve been here, i’ve seen one small piece of dogshit at the base of a tree, and there are dogs being walked everywhere around here. Social pressure can be a good thing.
You’d think social pressure would be a good thing, and ultimately, it probably is, but old habits die hard.
I have had two separate incidents like FallenAngel’s (I even had two mastiffs with me.) The dog owners’ reasoning and excuses were, um, execrable. One guy was not particularly apologetic, but pleasant enough about it. He lives down the street, daily walks three dogs, said he had no bags with him.
I handed him one.
The other guy was quite belligerent, and got in my face about how he’s “been living in this town for 30 years, I’ve always brought my dogs here, and this poop is biodegradable etc etc.” I was half-afraid he’d grab a shotgun out of his SUV.
If the poop is so marvelously biodegradable, why must he leave his own home and drive specifically to my neighborhood to dispose of it? Portwest, I have heard of the DNA thing. Here is another recent article about it
I don’t have this problem with dog poo as much as I do with chewing gum. On a hot summer day, my shoes can always find the sticky wad of gum that someone carelessly tossed on the pavement instead of throwing it in the trash.
I guess I should consider myself lucky that it’s only gum and not dog poo, but still… :mad:
I didn’t even realize I was doing it. I was holding my thumb over the end to get more pressure, and, apparently, I aimed a big ol’ stream right at my ass! Kinda funny, really.
I used the tooth brush in my travel kit. I threw it away and promptly wrote “tooth brushes” on my grocery list
