As I always say -- you can either be Minnesota Nice or Minnesota Passive-Aggressive! 

My wife and I live in an apartment complex that allows residents to keep pets. Usually, we don't mind; in fact, the countless dogs around the complex have contributed to some pretty severe puppy-fever.

Yesterday, however, we had a less than lovable experience that I'm rather proud to say I responded truly Minnesotan to -- passive-aggression.

Katie and I were leaving our apartment to go enjoy some 4th of July festivities when I nearly stepped in a piece of dog poop mere steps from our door. It wasn't a huge piece -- in fact, it was almost unnoticeable against the dark hallway carpet -- but large enough to catch my attention and alarm.

As someone whose only pets growing up were fish and a parakeet that mysteriously died, I found it gross. Pointing it out to Katie, I proceeded to criticize the careless dog owner who had allowed their pet to poop in a public hallway and do nothing about it! "We pay rent here, too," I exclaimed, "and though we don't mind other people having pets, they certainly shouldn't ruin the environment for the rest of us!"

Katie -- more level-headed than I and someone who did grow up with dogs -- explained that sometimes when dogs poop it clings to their fur and falls off later; maybe that's what had happened and the dog's owner didn't even know it had fallen off in the hallway. I hoped she was right.

Later that evening - 5.5 hours later, to be exact -- we'd returned to our apartment to find that the offending piece of dog poop was still right where we'd passed it in the hallway. "Really?!" I moaned again, "how many dog owners have probably passed this piece of poop since we left and haven't picked it up? Surely some other dog owner would have noticed, shown empathy, and picked it up as an act of kindness! Apparently not.

Fed up, I decided to do the right Minnesotan thing myself -- passive-aggressively post signs of caution for others.

Of course, that followed some video and photo posted to my Instagram story first:

As I always say -- you can either be Minnesota Nice or Minnesota Passive-Aggressive! 

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