Saturday, March 26, 2005

hug your dog


beaglemania Posted by Hello

I feel like I should always mention something music related in here since I don't write everyday. That way I can justify my tirades. So; Here's some dates of note:
Friday, April 1st - Nuclear Waste Management Club and New Radiant Storm King at The Elevens - Northampton, MA
Saturday, April 2nd - Mark Schwaber (solo), Lo Fine and Treefort at the Brass Cat - Easthampton, MA
Saturday, April 23rd - Ponies in the surf and Mark Schwaber (solo) at Night Owl Records - Free show! - Easthampton, MA
There. Now; a vent.
Pictured above are 2 dogs and myself. The one putting his paw on me is Scooter (our baby boy). The one in the foreground is Jen's friends dog. The dogs name is Butchie. She is about 6 months older than Scooter (who's just about 5 years old) and about 1/3 the size. Scooter likes to eat, apparantly. I joked with Alex (Butchie's mom) that Scooter takes dumps that are bigger than Butchie. Anyway, Alex adopted her about 2 years ago. She loves her madly. I was with this dog for about 3 hours and fell completely in love. It took a little while for Butchie to come around to me though. I found out that she's still quite afraid of men. Turns out that her last owner abused her. I won't go into details. Luckily, I was able to swoon her and we were best buddies relatively fast. I did notice her shaking visibly though when another male approached. Luckily, it took Scooter about 10 minutes to completely cling to us. He's an unscarred, wonderful boy. I never realized how lucky we were. I mean, I know we're blessed to have such a great dog but after hearing Butchie's story it just reaffirmed that someone was on our side with our adoption.
I would like to go on record, publicly. If you mistreat or abuse your animals I believe that you are the lowest form of life on earth. I don't condone or endorse violence but honestly, I see nothing wrong with taking a baseball bat to the head of any insipid, spineless fuck that ever does that to a dog. Or cat. Or anything. Not too PC? Fine. I don't care. It's part of my belief system. If you are wronging someone/something then expect to be wronged yourself. I will forever defend that which I love. If you read this and know anyone who treats animals this way please intervene. It's for everyones benefit.
Now, get off the computer and hug your pet.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am with you 100%, both on the adoption of animals as well as the absolute necessity of treating them lovingly, never mind humanely.

People who mistreat animals should be fed to bigger animals.

Jim said...

I never had a dog in my life until I was almost 30. I used to say, "I'm a cat person"; When my wife and I added Bernie (a shetland sheepdog--mini Lassie) to our family, it added a dimension I can't imagine we got by without before. For one, our only son, Mark, now had a puppy to care for and love and even now, 10 years later, when he comes home from college, the dog ignores the rest of us to run to his car and greet him with a "yelp" that is uniquely reserved for my son.

Your post about dogs and how they deserve to be treated well struck a chord. I worked for our public utility up here in Maine for about 10 years. Some of my travels took me to some remote pockets of Maine's coastline and other off-the-beaten-track places (the places where tourists never go). For whatever reason, I used to encounter more dogs that were chained up in squalid conditions. Some of the dogs became mean and I couldn't get close, but I'd often stop and fill water dishes and leave treats (seemed like I was forever buying bags of dog biscuits) for the ones who would let me close.

Sorry to ramble on so long, but your post was meaningful and needful, as dogs do deserve our love and humane treatment.

If you can't give that, then give your dog (or other pet) to someone who will love them.