The Disappearing Poo

I have noticed for a while now that Cashew is no longer eating her turds. She poops and runs off rather than turning and eating it. I was thrilled by this and wanted her to keep it up so i didn’t call any attention to the change and pretended i didn’t notice. I expected that i would encounter a lot of dog poop in the dog run when i mowed the grass but there was barely one pile of turds and it appeared to be freshly laid within the hour. My heart sank and i wondered if Cashew had gone back to consuming her own turds. One thing bothered me though. Cashew had eaten her own turds since puppyhood, but as an adult, for some reason, she wouldn’t touch her sister’s. She would eat deer poop, rabbit poop, coyote poop; the whole gamut, but she would not touch her sister’s turds. I could not find a single one of Sili’s turds. The freshly laid pile was Cashew’s. They were different sized dogs. They made different sized poops. Something was taking the dog poops out of the dog run and it wasn’t Cashew because she wouldn’t have eaten Sili’s and left her own. I was glad i didn’t have to step in it when mowing the lawn but i didn’t know what to make of the mystery. How could so much poop disappear?

One morning i encountered a couple of dung beetles working hard to get a perfectly round sphere of dog poop rolled under the porch steps. They were very dedicated and had a stellar work ethic. I was surprised by how quickly they moved the rather large ball of poop and i suddenly realized that the dung beetles must have single handedly cleaned the dog run for me.

Nature is amazing isn’t it? The mosquitos breed in the chicken water tank and then fly around in the chicken pen. As soon as night falls the toads emerge from the dirt and hop into the chicken pen to eat the mosquitos. The dogs poop. The dung beetles dismantle it and roll it away. Nature has all these beautiful systems in place. Its a shame humans disrupt so many of them.