N.H. man's No. 1 job is dealing with No. 2

HUDSON, N.H. -- Nobody thought he was serious. "You're going to do what for a living?" he heard. "You've got to be out of your mind!" But seven years later, John Darrigo is proud of his occupation. He's a professional pooper-scooper.

Don't waste his time cracking jokes about his job; he says he's heard them all.

"How's business? Been crappy?" is one that friends pull on him a lot.

Darrigo, 41, started Dog-Gone-It Pet Waste Removal Service after injuring himself on the job as a heavy equipment operator. He needed to find work, so one day, a friend suggested picking up pet waste from people's yards.

Whether the friend was serious or not, Darrigo took the suggestion to heart.

He advertised for a short time in The Telegraph when he first began, then never again put the word out there himself, relying on word of mouth from his customers. He did plaster his white Ford F250 pickup truck with his company's phone number and logo, a brown dog with a pile of, well, poop next to it. Complete with the license plate SCOOP4U, Darrigo's truck can be found outside more than 100 homes covering a 30-mile radius of his home in Hudson.

On a Wednesday morning, Darrigo finds himself on Salmon Brook Road in Nashua. He's been working since 5:30 a.m., an attempt to beat the summer heat that will soon catch up to him. Even by 10 a.m., sweat is pouring off his buzz-cut head and soaking through his company T-shirt, complete with a signature "No. 2" on the sleeve and the flashy logo of a dog doing its business.

It's one people have inquired about buying many times. He doesn't sell them.

Arriving at another client's home, Darrigo immediately arms himself with the tools of his trade: a small rake and a long-handled, trash bag-lined dustpan. The morning dew hasn't quite burned off as Darrigo snakes around the yard. He walks quickly and scrapes piles of excrement off the lawn and into the dustpan. Never once does he touch the dog waste he removes from each yard. His hands are a testament.

"This is as dirty as I get," he says, holding up his spotless hands after cleaning one customers lawn.

His system is quite streamlined by now. Arrive, pick up the poop, put the poop in trash barrels, clean off rakes using an enzyme solution, then move onto the next home. Each yard takes him 10 to 20 minutes, no more. He charges $10 per visit, per dog, though the first visit could cost more depending on a yard's cleanliness.

Speaking of clean, as odd as it seems, the procedure is actually very tidy. There's not a single drop of waste outside the trash barrels in the back of his truck. Most surprisingly, there's hardly a smell when the barrels lids are closed.

So what exactly does one do with five to 10 trash barrels full of dog excrement? Darrigo's ever-working entrepreneurial mind is attempting to devise a way to, of all things, liquefy it.

Still in an experimental stage, Darrigo is trying to find a way to actually turn solid to liquid and eliminate the waste via the sewage treatment plant.

"I've got an inventive spirit," he said. He's working on a machine that might someday be used to serve his means.

But while he works out the kinks, he either composts it or just brings it to the landfill. Composting is a long process. Darrigo estimates it takes three years to have usable compost.

He does put the compost to use with one of a few other jobs that occupy his time, including working for a landscaping company. He is also a welder and does contracted work that's included building handicap ramps.

But his main focus is his job as a pooper-scooper and small business owner. He's always trying to improve his business in hopes that it can expand and employ others sometime down the road. Working for himself, he says, is the best part about his job.

Being outside is another perk, though working year round in any weather comes with its pros and cons. Still, he's never been one to work indoors. He's a dog lover to boot, owning two boxers, so the two fit perfectly.

"It's like having 100 dogs," he said.

Not every dog shows affection back to Darrigo. Remnants of a long gash remain from the first time he wore shorts this season. As he was cleaning a yard, a bulldog ran up behind him and jumped on the back of his left leg and also bit Darrigo's hand. He jokes when he recalls the dogs owner saying he was just being "friendly." It took 11 weeks to fully heal.

He's been lucky, even though he has no idea how many times he's felt a dog's teeth chomping on his skin. He's never had a bite that required stitches, just a few close calls.

"I've gone running for my life," he said. One memorable moment involved a 240-pound Mastiff. The behemoth dog knocked him to the ground, but luckily for Darrigo, the only thing he gnawed on was his cell phone. The owners kindly replaced it.

All bites aside, Darrigo's job isn't about a paycheck or what he does to get one, but giving dogs what they deserve.

"I treat everybody's yard like mine," he said. "I believe all dogs deserve to have a clean place to go." While many people don't know he exists, that's just one of those things that Darrigo loves: making people do double takes as he drives by.

"That's a riot," he says. "They can't believe they see a guy who picks up dog crap." Guess those people haven't met John Darrigo.