Saturday Story

One of the things about having a dog is that you inevitably end up having to clean up after it. I myself do not relish the idea of scooping up dog poop. For some reason changing diapers fourteen times a day offends me much less.

We have a great deal of outdoor space for Gunther to go in. He has a few spots which he goes in, most of them far, far away from the house.

The other day Steve noticed that a dog had pooped right in our driveway, feet from our front door. And we all had a hunch it was not Gunther. Gunther only poops on grass. He would not poop on hard driveway surface. But the dog next door, Buck, just might. Gunther is a hyper and friendly dog, barking at everyone, and wanting to play with everyone. Especially Buck. But Buck is a hunting dog. He's nice enough, but playing with other dogs is not high on his to do list. He enjoys taunting GUnther, walking across our yard while Gunther barks and scratches at the door to be let out. He stands at the edge of the property, just where the invisible fence keeps Gunther in. Gunther barks and yaps and jumps and goes crazy, and Buck just stands there, looking anywhere but at Gunther.

Given Buck's plan for driving Gunther nuts, we figured it was probably Buck who pooped in front of our door. Which wasn't TOO big a deal, since it hasn't ever happened before.

But it was located in a pretty prominent place.

This morning the weather was warm, so I put vests on the boys and took them outsde, taking them out the front door instead of the back, to try and avoid the mud.

Naturally, Nathan headed right for the poop. We had no chance of stopping him. It was as through an invisible force PULLED him towards it, and he even sped up as he approached it, so that when he finally stepped in it he was going about fifteen miles an hour.

This alone would have been funny. Lillian, who was visiting, was trying to get Steve to get some paper towels to remove the poop, and I was trying to get Nick's vest to zipper, when Nathan then turned and came back towards us. This time, however, he was going downhill.

I saw what was going to happen before it happened, but I just couldn't get to him in time. Nathan stumbled down the incline, and then pitched forward. He did put out his little hand to break his fall. His little hand landed RIGHT ON THE DOG POOP! HIs vest clad tummy landed right on top of the dog poop.

Lucky for us the poop was dry, so there wasn't a mess. Which, in many ways, made it even funnier because there was... no mess. I could laugh without being too grossed out.

Oh - and Steve gets points for them cleaning up the poop.