Dogs save lives.

We don’t mean that in the Timmy-is-down-the-well kind of saving. Though that does happen. We mean it more in the “dogs get you outside, welcome you home, think you are the greatest” kind of way.

So we hope you will forgive us if we address something that primarily concerns Bend dog owners. It’s those new doggy bags that have been appearing in the dispensers of the Bend Park & Recreation District. We never gave much thought to the old, dark green bags. But we shall now refer to them as The Magnificents. These new, light green ones? They are The Mediocres.

Is it just us? Is our technique all wrong? Does anybody else have a heck of a time getting a Mediocre open? And light green? Do we really need to be able to see what’s inside? I mean maybe we shouldn’t look, but with a Magnificent that was never an issue. We should be grateful that the district provides any. But still …

We asked the Bend Park & Recreation District what is going on. We are told The Mediocres are not here to stay. There has been a supply disruption of The Magnificents. “Nothing more involved than that,” Julie Brown, communications and community relations manager for the district, told us.

That was the most magnificent thing she could say.