Posted Tuesday, March 9, 2010 --- 2:01 p.m.

Incident Report from the Madison Police Department:

Incident Date 03/05/2010 - 1:17 PM

Address 700 block Pinecrest Drive

Arrested:
Nina A. Bell, age 56, Madison
Ms. Bell was cited for Disorderly Conduct.

Arnessa V. Battles, age 38, Madison
Ms. Battles was cited for Disorderly Conduct.

A Madison Police officer cited two neighbors for disorderly conduct last week following a dispute over dog feces. It all began when Nina Bell, age 56, came out of her apartment and discovered a large pile on the walkway to her unit. She knew it too big to be from her dog, so she shoveled it up and dumped on the stoop of her neighbor - Arnessa Battles, age 38 figuring the mess must have come from Battles' dog. There is some dispute over how exactly the situation escalated from this point, but what is clear is that when the officer arrived the women had shoveled up lots of feces. Bell dumped on Battles’ car. Battles dumped Bell’s car. A police report notes: "Both the green Saturn and the beige Oldsmobile had large amounts of dog feces piled and smeared across their windshields." During the flinging of the feces some ended up on Bell's clothes, and before the battle was over both women had squared off with the shovels, although neither delivered an actual blow to the other. The officer observed that the entire backyard was covered in a winter's worth of dog defecation made much more obvious with the melting snow. There are three dogs in the apartment building: a pit bull, a Border collie, and a Rottweiler. The officer said it was impossible to determine which went where. In the end, he negotiated a verbal agreement wherein both women agreed to have their respective canines do their “doo” on their owner's side of the backyard.