Poop Happens, Life Lessons from the Animal Kingdom

The last few years have been extra tough on everyone as the world has had to adapt to an abundance of new factors that affect our daily lives. It is easy to get overwhelmed and stuck in a whirlpool of negative emotions and a poor me attitude. To help get us out of this funk, I’d like to offer some tongue-in-cheek, life lessons from the animal kingdom. In no particular order, these are things I’ve noticed while working with ALL kinds of animals that can be applied to our everyday life. So, if you are in the mood to laugh at your misfortune, read on!  

Crap happens to everyone.

Just like everyone poops, everyone has good AND bad things happen to them. Even if it may feel like you are the only one dealing with crap, remember that many people hide the messy parts of their life. This means you have no idea if their pile of poop is larger, smellier, or more time-consuming than yours unless you are creeping on them 24 hours a day.

Sometimes you need help.  

As much as you might want to keep your poop to yourself, there comes a point where you might need to ask for help. Remember those times when your pup needed help dealing with the last stubborn piece of poop that wouldn’t come out so they could be done with it and move on? Or when it was gross and messy, and they needed help cleaning up? We all need a little help sometimes.

Learn what you can and move on. 

When walking our dogs, we encounter other piles of poop on the trail and my dogs will occasionally examine and smell it before they will continue moving on. It’s a bit gross, but as humans, we should take a note because we would do so much better if we did the same.

When we find a mess that is not ours but is in our path; instead of remaining hung up on it for days or weeks stopping us from being productive and living our best lives, we could simply take a moment and acknowledge that it’s there.

When dogs smell, they are learning more about the environment. When we are investigating the pile of poop in front of us, it’s best to take a moment and learn what we can before we move on. A zookeeper does a quick examination of each pile of poop they find because it can tell them what type of animal was there, how healthy it is, what they’ve eaten if they are stressed, and more.

If we did this with the crap that we encounter in life, it would not only help us avoid stepping into it but it will also clue us into how to deal with the person it’s from and the environment that we are in. Most importantly, after learning what we can from it, we should make whatever adjustment is needed and simply move on.

Help others IF you have the time, energy, and ability.

I fully believe that it is healthy to have firm boundaries in place, so it is important to be able to tell when someone else’s crap is not your problem. Basically, if it’s not immediately affecting your life, you really don’t have to deal with it unless you want to. If you have the time and energy to pitch in to clean up other people’s messes then go for it! It’s great to see people helping others and it makes the world a better place. BUT don’t feel bad if you are not able to help all the time. Sometimes dealing with your own crap, is enough.

It’s okay to completely avoid some piles.

My oldest dog generally will go to great lengths to avoid messes created by other dogs. By and large, he does not deal with certain types of mess well and has no problem avoiding those ‘situations.’ This is perfectly fine! Avoid the piles of poop that are not your responsibility and are too messy to deal with. Remember, there are some diseases that spread through poop. If you avoid getting near questionable piles, your health will thank you for it.

There are different types of poop.

This may get a bit graphic! Sometimes it’s runny, sometimes it’s solid. It can be super smelly; it can be in different colors. It may be on grass, snow, or sand. Every poop will be a bit different, and depending on what it’s like, the best way to handle it will also be different. This means you will need different tools or lengths of time to take care of it. This translates to you may need therapy, medications, meditation, or even a vacation! All different ways to help clean up a psychological mess 😊.

You can’t rush your poop.

Sometimes it happens quickly, and sometimes it can take what seems like forever. The important thing to remember is that you can’t rush the process. Everyone needs time to fully deal with their crap otherwise it can cause other types of problems, or the fallout (see what I did there?) can happen suddenly and at an inopportune time.

Everyone handles it differently.

Some animals will stay in one spot until they are done, others will walk and spread it in a circle, and still, others will eat it when they are finished (yuck).  Bottom line is that poop happens, and everyone deals with it in their own way. And to a certain extent, there isn’t a whole lot you can do about it except make sure you pick up the mess that you are responsible for.

Don’t leave your pile for others. 

You should be picking up your dog’s pile of poop, which means you don’t leave your own piles for others to deal with. When you don’t take care of your mess, other people’s days can be negatively affected because they may step in it and carry it around with them, it can also spread diseases or parasites. If you leave a pile of poop on the grass for too long, it can also kill the grass underneath. Your issues are not for the world to cater to, you are responsible for your own mess. Ask for help when you need it but remember that sometimes other people have more than enough on their plate already so don’t assume that your pile will be taken care of by someone else.

In Conclusion

I hope we can all take lessons from our animal friends and acknowledge that poop does in fact happen to everyone. Let’s try to remember to treat others with a bit more patience and understanding while we all deal with our own piles of crap. If we can try to be more like responsible pet owners in our everyday lives, it can make a huge difference. Basically, the world is a much cleaner and happier place when we all take care of the crap that we are responsible for.

Pin For Later: