Which Marin Town Bags The Poop Prize?

It’s quite obvious that Novato hosts the best Fourth of July parade – no exception this year – and the best summer art, wine and music festival (or some combination thereof) in the Bay Area. Ipso facto.

We are also the hands-down winner of the best doggie poop bags around. And, not in any small way – the competition doesn’t even come close.

I know of what I speak because I have done copious research to this end.

So as not to appeared biased against any one city or community, I had an uninterested doogie poop bag person pull four other doogie poop bags from a large, unidentified sampling. This person, who will remain anonymous for safety reasons, does not own a dog and therefore need not care about the best way to pick up their poop. For those who do own a dog and are mandated to retrieve said poop, you’ll be relieved to know we got it right with our Mutt Mitts.

First, the contenders in no particular order: the Civic Center, the twin cities a/k/a Corte Madera and Larkspur, Ross and the City of Sonoma.

The Civic Center area has a thin, green bag called a Poopy Pouch. It’s got a nice warning about accidental suffocation and the recyclable symbol, so in this sense it’s a “green” green bag, which is of course a good thing. The problem is that it’s rather scant, so if you don’t have a small pooping puppy there’s a decent chance your hands might inadvertently get into the clean up process and that’s a bad thing. Except for the fact incredible jealousy might stoke the embers of honesty, I would imagine that there’s more than one Civic Center dog poop cleaner upper that could attest to this happening to them. (I’d love to hear from you.)

Next up, Ross, the city that gets blamed for everything possible, just because it’s a very tiny hamlet filled with very rich folks. They are constantly made the brunt of ludicrous comparisons with other areas like the Canal, even if it makes no sense whatsoever. However, when their Dogipot bags are compared to ours, it’s pretty pitiful. Of course, being Ross, their bags are OXO- Biodegradable, which I presume is meant to be better than other sorts of biodegradable bags, but truth be told, these things are puny. Quite possibly the puniest thing in the entire town.

Corte Madera and Larkspur shake it up quite a bit but lose out from an environmental standpoint. It’s really just a nice, thick, bright blue plastic bag with no markings whatsoever. You can pick up a decent poop, but come on you silly twins; plastic bags are disgustingly bad things even when they are pretty. However, they do make great bags to heist and keep in the car for collecting walnuts, apples or lemons, if you are so inclined.

Finally, the City of Sonoma doggie poop bags add another dimension to the debate. These bags belong in Beverly Hills or Brentwood, not anywhere in Sonoma County! Also bright blue, but slightly thinner than the above-mentioned, they are scented. Yep, some sort of probably toxic chemical has been added to these bags so the user doesn’t have to smell the poop, which has been retrieved but not yet dumped. I believe this little tourist filled town had a very conscious reason to buy and disseminate these fresh smelling bags. They want the tourists to go back home to their countries and cities where there are no such things as doggie poop bags, and tell their friends and neighbors all about this beautiful place where everything smells great – absolutely everything. And so they in turn will plot and plan and save their pennies to visit this fragrant city.

A word of caution: if you are walking on the lovely path behind the plaza in the city of Sonoma, DO NOT use their doggie bags to pick the hordes of blackberries that hang from the bushes in great gobs – or the figs either. The perfume mixed with the ripe fruit is just gross, and when you get home and open the bag it’s a useless mess. However, if you are strolling with a child of diaper age, DO grab a few. They are absolutely perfect for diaper disposal. (Unless of course you are one of those new survivalists types who have resorted to the cloth diapers of old.)

And what of our Novato champion? Our doggie poop bag is both environmentally and practically, marvelous. It’s degradable, and it’s thick and not only that, unlike any others in the sample, it’s mistake proof. The rules are these: you pull out a bag, which takes a little doing since they are very durable, then you turn it inside out, which double reinforces the bottom of the bag from any leaks and protects your hands in the pick up process. You tie a knot at the top and you are good to go until you hit a trash receptacle. They are so sturdy they could easily hold more poop than Ross and the Civic Center combined, and the smell is locked in tight, so no silly perfume alternative is required.

They are simply the best, as Novato is with many important things. And if you are picking up after man’s best friend on a regular basis, you well know, a super duper doggie poop bag is extremely important!