A Bountiful Harvest

 I walked outside this morning and felt a subtle crispness in the air, heralding the advent of fall.  I breathed in, deeply, and got a good noseful of that damp, earthy scent:  dog poop.  Today would be the day for the harvesting that I had been putting off for several weeks. We have three dogs, so ideally, this job would be done weekly, but late August and early September were miserably hot and humid, so I had procrastinated. Today, though, was perfect.  

It is a dirty job, but for the intrepid, it offers challenges and rewards. The first challenge is to don the proper apparel, for without the proper PPE, the task can be quite off-putting.  Long pants are a must during mosquito, chigger and tick weather, and by all means, wear closed-in shoes. Hand coverings are also recommended, since poop is best harvested with one's hands.  Scoops and shovels may be acceptable for the faint of heart, but they are cumbersome and inefficient.  My glove of choice is a Kroger plastic shopping bag. Insert the hand, then wrap the ends around the hand, securing the bag over the thumb with the two bag handles. I also use a Kroger bag for my pickings, and sometimes two bags are required. Thus prepared, I venture forth to begin the hunt.

Searching for dog poop in my back yard brings out the primal hunter and gatherer in me.  I lean forward, scanning the ground for signs of droppings. Some are ossified, and can be spotted by their white, almost powdery texture.  Others are merely dried, and can sometimes be mistaken for dried mushrooms.  The fresher ones often give themselves away by a flurry of feasting flies.  The task is made more challenging by the presence of fallen leaves, which often disguise the droppings. If it has rained recently, that, too, creates a challenge, in that the poop tends to disintegrate somewhat, and presents more as a miniature cow pie. I find that the best way to approach the job is by walking slowly and methodically, back and forth, across the yard.  While you may derive momentary pleasure from spotting a pile several feet away and darting over to collect it, by doing so you run the risk of missing the mound that was hidden under the clump of weeds at your feet.  No, I find that it's best to approach it, not as an Easter egg hunt, but as you would mowing a lawn or vacuuming a floor.

There is the issue of counting to contend with.  My husband and I are of two minds on this.  He dutifully counts each picking, and estimates that we should have about 21 per week, 3 dogs x 1 per day x 7 days per week.  I prefer a by-the-bag approach.  This morning's harvest was a two-bag harvest.  

Who says Kroger bags aren't good for anything?

There is one critical word of advice that I have found to be helpful in keeping  my spirits up at the end of this chore.  Once I have tied off my final bag, I try really hard to stop looking at the ground, because within minutes I will invariably find a pile that I  missed.  There is nothing more disheartening than to think you are finished, only to realize that, not only did you miss some, but that in order to pick it up you must either untie the bag you just tied off or run back into the house and pull out another bag.  So generally, I choose option 3, and pretend I did not see what I just saw. 

The one that got away

Finally, I thought I would share some music to gather poop by, it being a tune that often comes to mind as I hunt and gather.