”I have great faith in fools — self-confidence my friends call it.” Edgar Allen Poe
|
It’s my job to let the dog out at inopportune times– at five thirty in the morning, seconds after I sit down in a chair or for a second time, late at night, after I crawl into bed. Despite that, I tell him he’s a good boy and in his own way, he tells me I’m a good boy and we get along splendidly. If I’m particularly froggy, I tell him he’s the best dog I’ve ever had. I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve said that to other dogs before but he doesn’t know that and seems to appreciate it so much that I don’t see the harm.
All my inadequacies that are so obvious to others don’t seem to bother him, or the fact that I occasionally lie to him. He is a good dog as far as I know, but I don’t know what he does when I’m not around. I suspect that he has a few disgusting habits, and if I had to guess, I would estimate that he would be a raging sexual predator if given the opportunity. People like to say that there are no bad dogs - only bad owners. Of course, now it’s no longer politically correct to present yourself as an owner, except when it comes to vet bills and local legal authorities. We must now refer to ourselves as pet parents. But I didn’t sign on to be a parent again. There is no coming of age, no level of maturity at which you send the dog off to make his own way in this world. There are no adoption papers, no birth certificate that lists me as the father. He just showed up as a starving young pup on my doorstep; a waif, if you will. Anyway, the idea that there are no bad dogs seems to be common. Some folks like to carry this idea over to people – that there are no bad people in the world. There are those that believe that people are just doing bad things because of bad parents or in the minds of a few - a bad god. I struggle with the whole thing. How can there be bad parents but not bad people or a bad god who wouldn’t delight in creating such creatures? Some folks need people to be bad so they can talk about them and feel better about their own badness that’s not quite as bad as the badness of the folks they talk about. And some folks need good people that do bad so they can justify their own badness without feeling bad. People are confounding. Dogs not so much. Bruce Cameron said: “You can usually tell a man is good if he has a dog that loves him.” Mark Twain had his own strong feelings about dogs: “Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.”
0 Comments
I always watched to see if she was happy. The more I tried to make her happy, the more respect she lost for me. I told myself - if she was happy, I was happy. It wasn't true but I kept at it till we were both miserable. The only thing I learned from it; you can't make somebody happy if they don't know how to do such a thing.
|
AuthorRandom short stories and observations..... Archives
September 2024
Categories |
RSS Feed