Unwritten Rules are Still Rules

People used to share a body of unwritten rules, most of which were based on common courtesy, such as a group on a sidewalk reformatting to make room for others to use the walkway at the same time, rather than having to step off the curb and into the roadway to avoid the inconsiderate pack of sidewalk hogs. People who accidentally banged into other people standing in line, perhaps in a full restaurant, apologized and tried to be more careful while waiting for their table. People whose bodily functions performed at inappropriate times/places said a quiet "excuse me," and we all moved on, usually without a single "F word" voiced.

The most important unwritten rule currently impacting my life is that the
one who brings the dog to the dog park picks up that dog's poop. Because of extreme vandalism at the newer, bigger, better dog park in the valley, many more dogs are showing up at the smaller park in the Civic Center, which means a whole lot more poop is being deposited on the grass. The displaced dog owners from the bigger park, however, instead of watching their dogs and/or interacting with them, spend their time talking/texting. Because they do not pay attention to their dogs doing their duty, the piles of poop create a hazardous waste disposal site for the rest of us.

Yesterday, one of the older dog owners walked up to the sweet young thing who was talking on her phone and told her that her dog pooped, so she needed to go clean it up. SYT looked around the park and said, "There's a man who's paid to do that," and kept talking.

"No," the older lady responded, "there is a man who is scooping poop because no one is picking up their dogs' poop, but he's just one of the dog owners, not someone who is paid to pick up poop."

"Oh," SYT responded, sounding irritated. "Well, since he's doing it anyway, I'll thank him after I finish this call."

Had she been the only dog owner getting away with this, perhaps it could have been chalked up to selfishness, but we older folks noticed quite quickly that it's generational: we feel obligated to pick up after our dogs because it's the unwritten rule of the dog park, while the younger generation believe that "someone," preferably a paid employee, should do that for them.

While many of the older dog owners have mixed breed dogs and enjoy watching them play with the other dogs, the younger owners appear to have pedigreed dogs that they bring to the dog park the same way that their pedigreed children go to child care: drop off/pick up. I surmise that if the dog is special, so is its owner, and that means that you don't watch your dog, or play with your dog, or scoop poop.

Let's hope that the city finds the funds to repair the extensive damage to the newer, bigger, better dog park, the one with a full-time employee who scoops poop!