Enough of this crap!

While walking Tralfaz, my faithful pup companion, we came across this:

I was a bit perplexed by this because the spot where it's posted doesn't look like anyone's property. But there are adjoining houses, and who wants dog poop all over the neighborhood? Children actually do run around barefoot sometimes in suburbia. (We never did that in urbia, broken beer bottles being a fixture of the landscape.)

As tacky as homemade signs such as these are, I'm glad to see them. People in suburbia should clean up after their dogs, even if they think it is on unclaimed land. Even people in the city don't always clean up after their dogs, and it's been the law there since 1978. I don't know if it is the law in the town in which we were strolling, but I doubt they have cops patrolling every residential street on foot, looking to catch poopers in the act.

The thing is, it is rude to let your dog crap on someone else's property and not pick it up. Most people understand that, but judging from the fact that someone saw the need to post this sign, not everyone does.

Tralfaz used to go after other dogs' poop when he was a little guy; a lot of dogs do (dog doo! Har!) and it's a good way to pick up illnesses from other dogs. So I appreciate people making the effort to keep it clean.

And I don't want any people in my own neighborhood thinking Tralfaz is the guy leaving surprise packages. Tralfaz almost never goes anywhere off his home lawn, but when we're out and about I always carry a bag, just in case. (He surprised me once in the town park; in almost a year he had only pooped at home. Fortunately, on a whim, I had grabbed a poop bag before we got to the park.)

So I'm glad people are willing to put up signs to educate those who just don't realize that leaving dog crap around is rude. They may think it dissolves with the dew. They are mistaken.

Speaking of dogs, I uploaded a video of my pal's pup on YouTube -- I'm not saying this dog is cuter than Tralfaz, but this clip---puppy vs. ice cube---may be the cutest thing on planet Earth.