By:Curtis Morton
The way I see it, if dogs are ‘man’s best friends,’ then we ought to treat them a whole lot better.
I recognize that it is a style nowadays for especially young people, to own a dog and take them walking. So, it is common to see persons taking their dogs for walks and honestly in some cases, it more looks like the dogs are taking the owners walking—the way the dogs have them pulling behind them!
Well I newa!
It seems to be that the young fellas love these ugly looking, fierce looking dogs and the young ladies love those cute, little, fluffy kind.
It also appears to me that these young people are willing to spend endless of dollars on special feed and other dietary needs for their beloved pets.
The question is, how do we really treat our dogs?
Let us start with the names we give our dogs. Is there really anything in a name—or it’s just a name?
When I was growing up, many dogs passed through our yard. When one died or ‘disappeared,’ we just went and got another.
So we have had Lassie (popular name); Laddie-direct opposite to Lassie. I had a neighbour who named her dog DING (whatever that meant).
On a personal note, there was a time that I gave my dogs specific names because I wanted them to be BAD.
So I named one dog CASTRO. You see at that time, Mr. Fidel Castro was portrayed as a really bad man. We have heard differently since.
Well Castro was nice in the beginning. A little too nice for my liking. I don’t want to have a dog in my yard and when strangers enter the yard, they can pat its head and he is there wagging its tail.
No way Jose!
I want a dog that is going to bark and go on real bad even if a cockroach pass to close!
And then one day I came home to discover that Castro had gone berserk during the day. He had virtually destroyed the louvers in one of the back doors with his bare teeth and had literally held everyone in the house hostage for the day.
Well, I went out to Castro and Castro started to bark at me and bare his teeth. I knew then that I could not continue feeding such a dog, when he had become obviously dangerous.
So, I went to the VET and I asked them to come and put Castro away, before Castro put one of us away.
Dr. Pat informed me that there was a white lady who had been asking for a dog, so maybe I could let her have a look at Castro.
I told her that she would not want to see Castro. He was ‘armed and dangerous.’
She persuaded me to allow the lady to have a look.
So said, so done. The lady arrived the next afternoon and as she approached the dog, just as I expected, the dog let out a nasty snarl and started to bark ferociously. I begged the lady to stay far but she continued towards the dog, talking gently to it and with her hand reaching towards it.
As I waited in trepidation for Castro to attack, to my shock, Castro whined; wagged his tail and started to lick the lady’s hand.
‘You can go with him,’ I told her immediately.
A couple days later, I met the lady in town, sitting on the sidewalk close to Best Buy, crying.
A bus had just run over Castro and he was no more. She was crying as if she had lost a really close loved one.
Presently, the dog I have is called STRAY. Now that is a totally different story:
I was home one day and it was raining incessantly. My wife and I were watching television and we heard this whining sound, consistently. We managed to ignore if for a while but then my wife insisted that I should go and investigate.
The last thing I wanted to do was to go out in the rain to check on anything…but you know how wives are…
I eventually went to check and noted that there were two little puppies in the Ghaut, obviously needing help. I later learnt that the owner, who resided all the way in Rawlins, dumped the mother and her entire litter in the Ghaut, because he did not want them.
Now how cruel can we get?
Seems like the others had gotten washed away with the storm water.
I took those two little puppies home and someone later begged me for one but I kept the one that tried to bite my hand, as I held it. I called him STRAY and he is still with me.
Seems like some ill advised idiots have tried to poison it, at least three times but thank God, he has always recovered.
What about how we care for our dogs? Do we feed them regularly, especially when we have them tied? Do we change their drinking water and occasionally wash out their food and water containers? Do we give them the occasional baths?
I heard of some guys who just have dogs that they use for fights and betting purposes. Now if that is true, that is also a form of animal cruelty and they need to stop it. The stories are so horrible.
There is one story that made its rounds that some guys were known to put their two fighting dogs into an abandoned cistern and being fully well aware that only one would come out alive.
One guy described one such fight thus: ‘The dogs just went at each other and when they were done fighting, only the two tails were left!’
Well I newa!
(Children don’t swallow that one-you know that is impossible).
There are some persons who treat their dogs and other pets so well that they sometimes ‘will’ property to them!
In the United States and in the United Kingdom, I have heard of dogs and cats that have been given some elaborate funeral services and I think someone told me that they also have funeral homes dedicated just to pets.
Well I newa!
Just this morning, I heard of a military dog that has been awarded the highest honour ever given to an animal, for some deed of bravery which resulted in its death.
So where do we go from here?
I am convinced that God placed us here to take care of the animals. Not to mistreat or abuse them in anyway.
I must tell you this though, unlike someone I know, I am not going to be feeding any dog again, if am looking after it and it bites me.
No siree bob! That one would have to leave my yard pronto!
So I think we should do our utmost to look out for the best interest of our animals. God would honour us as good stewards.
That’s the way I see it. How do you see it?