The Soft or Brown Step

I have a feeling that every post I make on here will involve poop somehow. Such is the nature of my business.

One of my regular daily clients are (that's not proper English, is it? One--are? Oh well) two Cairn terriers which belong to a couple who definitely think of their pets as human children, and dote on them way too much. Their names are Talisker and Phoebe. Their names have nothing to do with the story, but there they are anyway.


So I was walking them today and I took what I like to call a "Soft Step" or "Brown Step", depending on the day and my mood. These terms, as you may or may not be able to guess, both apply to the act of stepping in feces, usually canine. Anyway, I scraped as much of it off as I could on the sidewalk, finished the walk, and took Talisker and Phoebe back to their rich-person house. I took off my shoes upon entering, and went to their kitchen sink to clean the rest off with running water and paper towels. They have a garbage disposal, so I assumed any waste would magically disappear, seeing as that is how garbage disposals work. I'm scrubbing away, and the man of the house comes home.

Fortunately I was 99% completed with my task, just putting the finishing touches on it. Also fortunately, the kitchen is at the back of the house. I quickly turned off the water (not having time to run the garbage disposal), tossed the stinky paper towels in the kitchen trash can and casually strolled to the front of the house. "Hello, Mr. McCourt", I said. "Just washing my hands real quick. Have a great weekend, sir."

As I was closing the door behind me I couldn't help but notice one clean-yet-wet shoeprint leaving a trail from the kitchen.