Isn't That Nice...

Yes, that is dog poop. I'm starting out a blog post with a picture of dog poop. Nuth'n like a Sunday blog post that starts out with some $&!# is there? And I didn't even go to church this morning. This may be a new low for me.

See, I started out today like I start out many a day with a good dog walk. Imagine my surprise when I pulled up in the parking lot, unloaded the dogs and found this. Yep, as you can see that's a trash can as well as a nifty little stand of poop bags that the city puts up for dog owners to clean up their dogs waste less than ten feet from the said disposal tools. Before I went ahead and cleaned up this mess, I just wanted to snap a picture of it. I'm tempted to make posters to place on the cities trails, I just doubt that whatever lazy SOB that left this would pay any heed.

To be honest though, this was the second walk of the day for me with the monsters. The first walk was at another park that someone had pulled into the end of the lot, threw all their food garbage into the parking lot (yes, they're are garbage cans, 5 even, in the same parking lot) before leaving. My dogs got several pringles down apiece before I realized what was in the snow and cleaned up that mess. It's all about as intelligent as the people who feed the squirrels at the dog park.

Now, to clarify, I have no hard feelings regarding squirrels. I think they're as cute as the next person. But I see it as cruel to bait them to the ground with food or even the habituation of these guys to food from humans with a bunch of canine psycho squirrel murderers running around legally off leash.

And for those of you who wonder why I cleaned up the top pictures mess, it's because I don't want someone else upon our return to the parking lot to think that this was possibly my dogs mess. More importantly, I don't want them to think I'm such a lazy SOB to have left it. Granted, I would hope that they would have noticed the 3 bags of poop I was bringing to the trash with 6 total poops, 2 of which were not my dogs but they were nearby when I picked my dogs up, so I might as well get them too.

You see, I play the exchange-a-poop game. I have four critters, and when we're roaming off leash, I try to keep an eye on all the 4-legged ones, but with a Great Dane Pup who runs and entices the other boys to chase, and the 16 year old lady who lags behind, I'm sure I miss a poop here and there while we're off trail. Or even worse, you see them squat, trudge over but they are done by the time you get there and no amount of looking for rising steam or trying to follow your nose can help you locate the pile. So, when I can't find my own dogs, I try to pick up at least two other piles that are somewhere on the walk, and if I'm cleaning up my own and see someone else's mess, I'll get it too. It's my version of pay it forward if you will. I wish more dog owners would do the same. What's a little canine poop karma between trail sharers?

So, if by chance, the owner of the offending canine party reads this... pick it up. And yes, I'll say something to you if I see your dog pooping and you not cleaning it up. And if anyone sees me out and about and are out of bags, I'm sure to have some. All my jackets have one or five stashed away in a pocket somewhere.

On a different less odorous note, you can notice todays snow. Isn't it pretty?!? This was taken on yesterdays walk. No snow... I love snow.

Notice, the antelope are not running because my dogs are not allowed to chase them. And yes, my dogs saw them. I was slightly concerned that the antelope showed so little fear since one of my dogs is about their size, until I noticed the golden eagle following them. I think they were trying to deter it since goldies are known to take young antelope and I've heard stores of them wearing our lone adults until they can take it down. Sorry, I wasn't able to get a good picture of the bird. It kept doing this flying/soaring thing that my phone didn't work with very well. I also had to make this one extra big because my phone can only do so much, and damn if I can make it zoom in and take a picture at the same time. Teach me to go out with a good camera on me.

Have a great rest of your weekend, and you dog owners, don't forget your poop baggies. Thanks!