Loose Ends: Pick up after your pet

T  he dog walkers among us may be familiar with the handy plastic bags dispensed at a few of the parks in town but they may not have noticed that each station is marked with a reminder to be responsible and pick up after pets. Before the doggie-doo disposal stations were available, few residents ever picked up after their dogs. Many dog owners are strong believers in the right of a dog to roam at will. Responsibility for whatever is left behind, is not their concern. Other pet owners don’t let their pets roam freely but they will extend the leash long enough to let them leave steaming piles in someone’s freshly mowed lawn. Soon it becomes a real problem, as warmer weather and green grass attracts soccer players, kite fliers and people playing fetch with Fido.This year the harsh weather has produced a heavy influx of deer bedding down under the trees around town. Who is responsible to pick up what the deer leave behind? Plastic doo-doo bags will not work and homeowners may become desperate enough to ask the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to intervene. Taking that one step further, someone will eventually suggest that one answer could be to require the irresponsible owners (the government officials who have allowed the herds to increase each year) to solve the problem. Maybe the man who invented the rodent vacuum cleaner a few years back could go back to the drawing board and design something suitable. He probably discovered the machine was cost-prohibitive and at odds with animal activists. The “green” fuel advocates might want to consider using the pellets for future vehicles and come up with collection centers all over the West. Maybe somewhere a science laboratory is exploring the use of deer-doo for cutting edge research.Probably not, so residents with big brown patches in their lawns will just do what they’ve done for many years. Gather up some lawn ornaments and wait for the first sign of next winter.