Friday, January 16, 2009

The Thaw!

If snow is Mother Nature's way of telling you that you don't have to scoop the poop, beware of the thaw.

We have had more than a week of sunny and bright weather around here, while the rest of the country is busy freezing and shoveling. This means that the play yard is defrosting into a mud pit at an alarming rate. This also means that my yard, my walk down to the kennel, plus the play yard is turning into a mine field. Step lively.

As a expert on scooping poop, I offer my expertise in the area of scooping in the winter. Dog poop is a whole 'nother beast in the cold and snow.

If you just plan to wait until the warm weather, more power to you. This is not an option for me. A single weekend with big dogs and I would have to wear hip waders down to the kennel.

WINTER POOP REMOVAL 101

Fresh Poop in Snow
  • Scoop it while it is still warm, but try to get the least amount of snow with it.
  • Extra snow in the garbage bag will make it impossibly heavy.
Not So Fresh in Snow
  • Don't even attempt to remove partially frozen poop.
  • You will only be able to remove the non-frozen top portion.
  • Leaving you to later find all these chunks of poop shrapnel all over the place.
Frozen Solid
  • This requires chipping the now rock hard poop out of the snow.
  • Hit the snow behind the poop, never the poop as it will destroy your scooper.
  • Or dig under and just flip it out of the snow whole.
Waiting for the Thaw
  • This is the best option, but it requires some patience.
  • DO NOT attempt to remove any poop until the ground it is sitting on has dried out
  • It make look like poop, when in fact it is a gelatinous mass with the consistency of pudding that has no structural integrity.
  • Wait and get it when it reconstitutes back into a liftable form of poop.
I hope you found this helpful. I like to think that I have gained all these skills for the sake of passing them all.

May you all have clean shoes until the next snow storms.

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