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October finally kept its promise this week. After a summer that felt like living inside a hair dryer, the first cool, rainy Saturday of fall rolled into Farmers Branch, and I could practically hear the whole city reaching for a blanket.
My team reached for the sparkly rain boots instead.
Scooping in the rain is its own small adventure. The trees had dropped a fresh layer of yellow leaves overnight, the mulch beds were soaked through, and every leaf in the yard looked a little suspicious. Wet leaves make the best camouflage there is. Somewhere under all that autumn color was a week's worth of dog business, and it wasn't going to find itself.
Standing out there with a rake and a bucket, I kept thinking about where all that rainwater was headed. It ran down the driveway, into the gutter and straight into the storm drain at the curb. Most of us never give that drain a second thought, and that's a mistake.
According to the North Central Texas Council of Governments, storm drains in our region drain directly into our lakes and streams, and that water is never treated or cleaned along the way. Anything sitting on the ground when the rain starts gets a free ride to our creeks and, eventually, the Trinity River.
That includes what our dogs leave behind. And there's a lot of it.
NCTCOG estimates there are about 1.5 million dogs in North Central Texas. At roughly three-quarters of a pound of waste per dog per day, that comes to more than a million pounds of dog poop every single day across our region. I'll let you picture that. Or better yet, please don't.
Dallas Water Utilities puts an even finer point on it. One gram of dog waste can contain more than 20 million fecal coliform bacteria, and pet waste can spread parvovirus, salmonella and Giardia. NCTCOG adds that parvo can stay infectious on the ground for six months or longer. When that bacteria washes into a creek, the water becomes unsafe for swimming and for the dogs that love to splash in it.
The utility also points out something I hear people get wrong all the time. Dog poop does nothing good for your lawn. It's highly acidic, and it's hard on grass and plants. Leaving it in the yard to "break down" just gives the next storm more to carry.
So here's my rainy-season advice, from one wet pair of boots to another.
Scoop before the storm. When rain shows up in the forecast, take ten minutes beforehand to clear the yard. Whatever you pick up today never makes it to the creek.
Check the hiding spots. Mulch beds, leaf piles, fence lines and the corner behind the AC unit are where things go missing. Fall leaves make this harder, so slow down and look twice.
Bag it and trash it. Please don't hose it toward the street, bury it in the flower bed or toss it in the compost. A sealed bag in the trash can is the right home for it.
Walk the yard again after the rain. Downpours have a way of uncovering what you missed.
None of this is glamorous, and I say that as someone who does it for a living. But a little effort in each of our backyards adds up across a whole region. Clean yards really do make for cleaner creeks, healthier dogs and safer water for everyone downstream.
As for that first rainy Saturday, I hope you spent it exactly the way it was meant to be spent: under a blanket, with a second cup of coffee and nowhere to be. If the thought of hunting through wet leaves sounds like the opposite of cozy, you can always leave the yard to us. That's one less thing on your list this fall.
Now, if you'll excuse me, my boots need drying.
Phyllis Schroeder is the founder of UrbanTail Cleanup, a woman-owned pet waste removal service based in Farmers Branch. UrbanTail serves homes, apartment communities and HOAs across Farmers Branch, Carrollton, Addison and Dallas neighborhoods.
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