Since we wandered up into the mountains this last spring, we have found ourselves in the middle of a college town with lots of active dog owners.
With hundreds of hiking trails and no less than ten full scale dog parks, there are dogs everywhere. Walking downtown finds dogs enjoying the sunshine lying on the payment tied to a parking meter, while their owners are in having a beer or a sandwich. Everyone loves the dogs and the dogs seem to love everyone. We have yet to run into an anti-social dog.
The dogs seem to come in every shape and color, with a propensity for the retrievers and the border collies. These dogs, both purebred and mixed, are found running about at the parks and joyfully chasing balls and sticks.
It did not take us long to discover that dogs went everywhere we did. The trails were filled with happy wagging tails and curious sniffs. If you do not like dogs, you will not like hiking in Bozeman, nor will you enjoy a stroll downtown.
Keeping this in mind, these happy and healthy dogs are cared for by community conscience dog owners. The park district keeps poop bag dispensers handy on all the trails and parks. These dispensers are a wonderful convenience for dog owners and keep the parks tidy. Even the parks that are 37 acres are kept picked up.
Who do you think carries that poop around?
You guessed it. Me.
I have seen a few industrious dog owners who have tied the used plastic bags to their dog’s collars and made them carry them, but there is something just not quite dignified about a beautiful red Irish setter with a sweeping tail and beautiful feathered feet carrying a plastic bag on its collar. It may be easy, but it is not dignified.
As an active member of Artfire, the online venue for handcrafted items and artists, I enjoy perusing many of the other artists’ shops for the sheer pleasure of appreciating other people’s handicrafts. That is where I discovered the perfect solution to my pooch’s poop bag problem.
Rachael Barman of Blue Shed Crafts has created the cutest poop bag I have ever seen. She and I are in a couple of the promotion guilds on the site and I have quite regularly featured her poop bags in a collection of items that I have enjoyed.
After featuring this bag for so many different collections, as Christmas rolled around and I was thinking of the upcoming hiking season, I decided that I was going to get Blu a bag.
Last year, we had one hike that was over 11 miles and that is a very long time to carry poop, no matter how tightly the bag is tied. Not to mention the fact, that I was using a walking stick and I was carrying my camera while traipsing around on a mountain side.
Thoughts like this made the decision for me. I will continue to carry Blu’s poop, but it is not going to be in little plastic bags knotted and tucked between my fingers.
Here is where we are carrying Blu’s poop from now on.
Yes, Woof, I heart my dog Scoop that Poop!
Here is the deal with this bag. It is almost a shame to put poop in it, it is so nice.
Rachael has machine knitted this bag and it is a nice tight knit and professionally created. The inside of the bag is lined with a plastic liner that is solidly sewn in; the liner fills the complete bag and is attached both at the top and along the sides for a solid and secure connection.
The top of the bag has a drawstring, which makes it able to create a pouch by pulling the strings. Rachael sells one that has a clip on it to attach it to your belt loop or your dog’s collar, but since I create jewelry, I already have clips and will attach this to my backpack clamps.
The bag is washable and should be line dried and not put in the dryer.
She has a couple different styles of bags and several colors.
If you love your pooping puppy, you would do yourself a favor and be fashionable by swinging a bag of poop from your belt loop, backpack or your puppy’s collar.
Tell Rachael that Blu sent you :)
