I’ve always been a big animal lover. Anything from a mouse to a moose and all points in between, I’ve even been known to rescue creepy crawlies from the water butt, I’m just a big softie at heart. As far as domestic animals are concerned, I’m very much a cat person, but I do like dogs, though we’ve never actually had one of our own. I’m telling you this because of what I’m going to write next.

Between our garden hedge and the lane, which is a public road, we have a grass verge of some 6 feet or so in width, stretching the full length of our garden. The lane is quiet most of the time but is popular with walkers, joggers and cyclists, we’ve even had a traction engine and the local hunt go passed. However, this is about walkers, specifically those walkers who have dogs with them. I’m sure you know where this is going.

In the summer it is my job to cut the grass on the verge, but before I go anywhere near it with a lawn mower, I have to go along it’s full length ‘flicking’. What kind of person allows their dog to do it’s business on someones grass, sometimes right by the gate where we drive in and out. It’s disgusting, and if I happen to miss a bit when I’m ‘flicking’ and then subsequently run over it with the mower blades, oh the smell, and then I have to clean the mower.

A couple of years ago the local council provided a ‘dog-poo’ bin on the opposite side of the lane. We viewed this addition with mixed feelings, it’s not the prettiest thing to look at, but we felt it might go some way to solving our problem. Sadly it didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I have seen plenty of people use it, I’ve even seen cars pull to deposit their little plastic parcel, but some people are still letting their dogs mess on our verge.

I try to look out for the culprits and I do have one or two suspects on my list, but until you can actually catch them in the act, it’s not possible to confront them. Even then, would I actually dare? In my mind I’m good enough but real life tends to be a bit different.

I have spoken to friends (not suspects) who I consider to be responsible dog owners, they agree it is disgusting and say they always clean up after their pets, which in itself is fairly disgusting when you think about it too hard, but better than the situation we have here, being forced to clear up after someone elses dog. There endeth my rant for today.

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