I was walking Yoshi at Colquitz today and in typical Yoshi fashion I needed 3 bags to clean up after him. Since it was the start of the walk and I was going to be coming back the exact same way, I left each bag at the side of the trail so I didn’t have to carry it, or put them under the stroller.
I knew some people were coming up behind me since I saw their dogs. A minute later I heard someone saying something rather loudly so I looked behind me. Some guy repeated “What are you planning on doing with that?”. Took me a second to realize he was talking about the poop bag.
I told him I was going to pick it up on my way back. He then grilled me on my plan. I told him that I was going to do a loop, that I parked near Silver City, that on my way back I would pick up all three bags, and that I always picked up my poop bags. I was very ticked at this point.
He seemed very skeptical of me and ranted about people picking up the poop and leaving the bags all over the place, not bothering to take them to a trash can. He made some noise about when people see someone doing it, it gives tacit approval for them to do it too (his example was littering). He would rather people just leave the poop to decompose over bagging and forgetting it.
I just wanted him gone. I know all the issues, I’ve been involved in committees and I’ve protested. I didn’t need some crackpot going off on me.
It really got to me for some reason. Part of me is bothered that he would lump me in with irresponsible owners. Part of me is bothered that he took such an aggressive tone. Part of me is bothered that he just assumed the worst.
After the walk I dropped Yoshi back at the car then headed for the mall. I saw the guy loading his dogs into his truck and I really wanted to say something to him, but I let it be.