Are you dog whoopsie compliant? - Toowoomba Chronicle

JOHNO'S SAY: Look, I am not a dog person, I've got my chooks, my goldfish and nature's beautiful birds in the garden, and that's enough.

But Mrs Johnson is a dog person and so it was, not too many years ago, that Bonnie the golden retriever joined our (her) family.

The only plus I can add for Bonnie is that she represents a great excuse for me to go for a walk, the three of us, for an hour most mornings.

But the thing I fear, the thing I fear more than anything is that on our walks Bonnie will deposit a whoopsie (poop, poo, droppings etc) on someone's front lawn.

Bonnie and the container of plastic poop bags.

And so it was two years ago that one of Bonnie's deposits was dropped at the corner of Spring and Ramsay Streets just as an American cyclist (the accent gave her away) appeared.

"Are you going to pick that up?" she asked, "Hell yes, I be back for that one later" I responded. Whew, I got away with it.

But in my heart I knew that the whoopsie police would eventually get me and just recently Mrs Johnson found herself in the same position.

A couple walking their dogs noted Bonnie's latest environmental deposit and asked the same question, all the time wagging their heads from side to side. "Forgot my bag" replied Mrs J.

So now Bonnie has a little friend on her lead, a pink bone-shaped item with one million plastic poop bags inside.

How do I know that?

Well when I first used a bag to snavel up Bonnie's contribution (there's something not nice about warm excrement against your hand early morn) several metres of plastic bags unravelled and took the form of a kite's tail waving recklessly in the sky above.

However, my position is unchanged. If I can still get away with it I will. I mean, after all, do you ever see the owners of kangaroos, wallabies, rabbits and bandicoots collecting their droppings?

For mine - dog owners your beloved pooches can rest easy on my nature strip, I'll be around the following weekend on my reliable "Yard Mate" ride-on mower from Toowoomba Mower Centre - one hit, a puff of white powder into the air and the dropping disappears.

What do you think, should dog owners take home droppings in plastic bags?