So do we live in a civilized society or what? People who do not clean up after their dogs

I live in the city, on a corner lot so I have sidewalks in front of and beside my house. Our neighborhood is one that has lots of people walking, jogging and partaking in all forms of exercise, including walking their dogs. There is a written and unwritten code of conduct when it comes to when and more specifically where your dog goes pooh. The unwritten code is that you have some way to clean up your dogs mess and take it with you, a Ziploc sandwich baggy if you pooch is small, a gallon freezer baggy if your K9 is medium sized and some sort of self closing Rube Goldberg apparatus if your puppy resembles a Shetland pony. In the city I reside there are ordinances on the books that address this issue as well. If you are caught, at least two witnesses or video proof, letting your dog do his business on someone else’s lawn you can be fined up to 50 dollars. We had to know the ordinance code as well, according to the cop, because most of the police are not going to know it or take the time to look it up and they would consider you a whiner from that point forward, I am not kidding that is what the cop said to me.

Now I want you to know that Mr. Oatmeal is not a whiner, he does spend a lot of time working in his yard though and dog crap is a hindrance to that effort. Not that my yard is perfect but I work hard to keep it covered with grass and mostly green. I do not do this solely for myself, I could care less to tell you the truth, I do this to help maintain the property values in my neighborhood. If you get a bunch of houses in a neighborhood that have poor lawns and poorly designed and maintained landscaping it looks bad and has a direct impact on property values. Most of my neighbors share my opinions when it comes to the proper maintenance of the lawns, some are more about the keeping up with the Jones than just keeping the property value up. Doesn’t really matter to me what their motivation is as long as they look nice and do not destroy my property value. I have removed every living thing in my yard, with the exception of the 100-foot oak trees, and replaced it all with more suitable plant material. I installed plants that are indigenous to our area which minimizes water usage which is another concern when dwelling in the city. The chosen plants also have rotating blooming cycles so there is color there all year long. I am doing my part!

My current lot is 115 feet by 115 agonizing feet, I started with a 20 inch push mower and with saint Augustine grass that is prevalent here it damn near killed me keeping it mowed down. Later I acquired a Snapper riding lawn mower that was abandoned behind the bushes at a neighbor of a friend of mines house. It was a rusted hulk that would not even roll and had a number of busted plastic covers. After a couple of weeks of work and less than 20 dollars in parts I had it going and the 18 horse tractor with a 38 inch cut allowed me to cut the grass in a fraction of the push mower method. This was also a contributing factor in my weight gain as well, not enough exercise and a story for another day. This tractor allowed me to spend less time running the mower and more time keeping the grass green and landscaping up to snuff. With the additional work in the yard I found that more and more I was getting dog crap all over myself, while in certain situations and ceremonies that is not all bad, I would prefer to be crap free while working in my yard. Now if you live in the country you are probably going what the hell is wrong with Mr. Oatmeal, I can understand as I grew up living the country. Just as you would stop and offer assistance to anyone broken down in the middle of nowhere we in the city try to live in equilibrium with our neighbors, it is harder to do but still we do it to contribute to our society.

So if you live in the city and you walk your dog, especially in my neighborhood, take something to gather up the processed remains of the Purina dinner your K9 consumed.