Hi there friends,
I hope that you’ve been having a great fall and that the weather crazies have not managed to upset your daily walks or your ongoing pee-mail conversations with friends. Today I wanted to talk a bit about poop…and more importantly the current obsession that my humans have with watching me while I do it and then going to pick it up afterwards. Seriously — what is that? How gross can they possibly get??
To be honest, this behavior only started when we moved to Berlin. And whereas many people use plastic bags for this purpose, right down the street from us is a dispenser for these guys…
Now I just find them to be ok — but the humans seem to think they are the greatest things ever.
Here’s the deal. These little bags (made from recycled paper and 100% biodegradable) have a little cardboard flap in them, which essentially folds open to turn the paper bag into a shovel. You open the bag, have a little piece of cardboard in each hand, “scoop” up the poop between them so it goes into the bag, flip it over, fold the dirty flaps into the bag and then carry it along with the built in handles.
It’s kinda hard to explain with words and even photos, but they have a little graphic demonstration on their website. I tried to convince mom she should demonstrate for us, but she didn’t want to have to hold on to my poop for that long and do retakes. 😉 But lets just say that the big negatives about using plastic baggies, like having to feel the warm poop in your hand, are completely eliminated with these things. And the best part is that they are free all over Berlin.
photo credit: JasonParis via photopin cc
Well mostly free. I’m pretty sure that 120 Euro dog tax that everyone pays covers the cost of these bad boys. But they refill them all the time, which is incredible and awesome since the stack of them is cleaned out after about a day. But I think that for the city it’s a wise investment since most people aren’t using these bags for other purposes (unlike the little plastic baggies). The rather cool thing is that cities all over Germany, Holland, Italy and England have started using bags like these for encouraging their residents to dispose of their dog poop, which are far superior to other options.
A lot of people around here do actually seem to use them (or some other type of poop bags). There are lots of dogs in our area and I rarely find mounds to sniff and “read” lying on the street or in the parks…which is definitely a good thing. Otherwise they’d start banning “man’s best friend” all over the city. And at this point, we’re allowed to go just about everywhere, even the post office!
Soggy poop free kisses!
