My friend broke her foot and I offered to take her dog for a walk. I took a poop bag with me but, when it came time to make use of it, I just couldn’t do it. The incident occurred in a park with no one around.
Does not scooping up the poop cancel out a good deed? H.B., Cronulla, NSW Credit: Illustration by Simon Letch What a coincidence.
I also broke my foot recently. (I tell everyone it’s a footy injury, which is true. I slipped on a stair and injured my footy.
) And another coincidence: I also have a dog who needs daily walks (her name is Specky because she’s covered in speckles. I’m a writer, I’m very good at names). One more coincidence: my wife was overseas during my injury, so I also had to rely on friends to walk my dog (and when friends were unavailable, I hired a knee scooter, attached the dog’s lead to the handles and let her drag me around the park like Ben-Hur in a tiny, four-wheeled mobility chariot with a grocery basket).
Loading So I know first-hand what a monumental favour it was to walk your broken-footed friend’s dog. But as a member of the human race, I also know first-hand what a nauseating ordeal it is scraping poop out of shoe treads with a pointy stick. When placed upon the scales of justice, an unscooped poop will always outweigh a dog-walking favour, especially if the dog has been eating cheese or Homebrand “meaty” dog loaf.
Ask yourself the age-old philosophical question: if a poop falls in an empty park and nobody is around to see i.