Melvin, I forgot the bag.

I have a pet Foxhound named Melvin. Jess and I thought it would be a brilliant idea to get one more thing to take care of one month before we had a baby. I mean, if life is about to drastically change, why not make it spectacular?!! Melvin has a calm demeanor but is quite clueless. He was found as a stray by the local animal shelter and doesn't even know his name, but is a happy dog and loves to sniff things.

Melvin and I go for walks in the morning, usually before Jess is awake. That's not really the case anymore since Jess is awake all through the night thanks to another responsibility we added to our home. On our walks Melvin likes to do two major things: sniff things and pee. Sometimes he likes to sniff things and then pee on them, though he rarely pees on something and then sniffs it. I wonder what his life as a stray was like and feel I don't have to imagine that much : )

Once a morning during our walk Melvin also does "something else", and while it does follow some intense sniffing, it ain't pretty. It is also why most dog owners are often carrying around a plastic bag with them because, for some sick reason, they like to store dog poop in their garage. I even look forward to this time during a morning. Not for the smell or having it squish in the bag when I pick it up (though if it were not poop it would feel pretty nice), but if it is done outside then it stands a better chance of not being done inside!

Two mornings ago I made a grave mistake. The logic was in my head but it didn't follow Melvin out the front door. We were two blocks down when the thought hit me like a sack of potatoes - I forgot the bag. This is quite disasterous when living in a neighborhood as there are those people who don't wish to have mounds of crap placed in their front yard. I spent the next few minutes looking for anything I could find to deal with the enevitable. (I opted for a handful of giant leaves and some masterful engineering that allowed me to handle the load without actually touching it.) The feeling of forgetting the bag was not really about the poop, but of dropping the ball with something I am responsible for. It was gross, but somewhat inconsequential. I think a lot more these days about my responsibilities to other things, hoping not to forget the bag and still enjoy the walk every morning. Melvin gave me a sniff and we made it home.

Later.