Where have all the trash barrels gone? Long time missing.

Handling inspection in my smart, though not warm enough, togs.

For me, a scent hound, sniffing is my stock in trade, my way to keep in touch with what's going on in the world, my newspaper, my e-mail, my essential info source. You get the idea. So I don't mind at all when people don't pick up after their pets. My family, however, is the carry-in, carry-out sort. Yet, they'll use a barrel sometimes rather than carry something super odiferous home. Not that they, with their inferior smellers, really can appreciate it.

Picking up, however, is not the problem, not at the fields next to Natick's Lilja School, anyway. My friend Alexis stocks the pickup bag box herself, ever since the town of Natick stopped filling it a few years ago. The problem is, there's nothing to put the bags in. The barrels have disappeared. I say, if folks are good enough to pick up, let them do the right thing. Even if it makes life a little less interesting for me.