then the pilot saw a cleaning guy, somebody wearing a “lisbon cleaning services” shirt. he pleaded with him to clean it up… the cleaning guy said he would dispatch somebody with gloves. in the meantime, he rolls a garbage can and a recycling bin into the vicinity and rearranges the boarding lanes ever so slightly so nobody can get near the area. or so he thought. at least one person did walk through the poop zone and another dragged a rolling bag through, taking some incremental excrement with him. to be fair, though, he did walk through lane #2, so i suppose he should have known better.

about ten minutes later (a half hour or so after the dog did his business), somebody arrives... gloveless.

there is much discussion and negotiation between the two cleaning professionals… and much surveying of the area. the gloveless wonder takes a wet rag and applies it directly to the dog treat by attaching it to the end of a swiffer sweeper type device and presses down and scrapes. this is exactly the opposite of what i would have done, but, heck, i didn’t have any gloves either. (there’s a lot of stuff in my carry on - life on the road can be ruff, after all - but i don’t carry a pooper scooper or latex gloves. if the dog needed to charge his iPhone, however, i would have been ready to assist.)

so the guy scrapes and presses down hard, which essentially grinds the doggy doo deep into the carpet. then he disposes of the rag. then he comes back with a mop (i kid you not) and he proceeds to mop up the carpet while pressing down hard. (i’m no cleaning pro, but I didn’t know mops could be used on carpet… the things you learn as a frequent flyer!) this continues for a minute or three during which he manages to spread what’s left of the dog’s surprise (and no delight) over an area of about five or six square feet. he looks at the mop, he looks at the “clean” area, nods with a satisfied smile and places the mop back in his cart, perhaps to be used again on some other unsuspecting surface.

forgive me while i rant (although i realize some might consider this dogma), but i thought this response was kind of crappy… not only did they take a half hour to clean up the carpet after this dog did his business, but they left the carpet smelly and stained and riddled with bacteria. what they needed was some of that super absorbent industrial dry powder that is made specifically for cleaning up things like this and other unpleasantness. and then they needed to cordon off the area until they shampooed it and sanitized it.

that’s the leash they could do, in my opinion.

the flight left about three hours late, after a gate change. i didn’t stick around to see what the peacock did.