When I was a Puppy

[BusterStacks]

why post this crap.

[PsYcHo-ScHnAuZeR]

[ QUOTE ]
why post this crap.

[/ QUOTE ]

Our underage poster can't handle the thought of death?

Death is all around us, everywhere we go.

[BusterStacks]

I'm 23 you dumb [censored], it's not that I can't handle it, its that it personifies an animal that does not have rational thought, in an attempt to provoke emotion. Add to that, it's not even well-written. Crap.

[PsYcHo-ScHnAuZeR]

[ QUOTE ]
it personifies an animal that does not have rational thought

[/ QUOTE ]

Dogs have rational thoughts.

I'm hungry
there is steak on the table
I gonna take that steak when no one is looking

that seems pretty rational to me.

[YourFoxyGrandma]

I think Buster was trying to point out that dogs don't have the same set of complex emotional responses (as displayed by the dog in the posted story) that we humans do.

Also, your avatar is a dog in some sort of military outfit.

[ChristinaB]

Shelter: Woman brought in frozen dog, asked for new one

The Santa Fe Animal Shelter says a woman brought her dog into the shelter, frozen solid, and asked for a new one.

The shelter’s executive director, Kate Rindy, said the woman and her family left town for a few days, and left the dog out in the cold to freeze to death.

Rindy said far too many pet owners say the frigid temperatures can and do kill pets. In most cases, incidents go unreported.

In this case, Rindy said, the woman put the one-year-old terrier mix’s frozen body on the counter at the shelter, and asked to look for a new dog. Workers did not allow her to adopt another dog.

Rindy said the best thing to do for pets in this cold weather is simple. “Bring them in, bring them in, bring them in,” she said. “It’s not that much different than you or I out there in our bare skin. The difference between us and them is we can put on layers of coats.”

The woman who brought the frozen dog in could face criminal charges of cruelty and neglect. The case has been turned over to the Santa Fe Animal Control unit.

[YourFoxyGrandma]

That's pretty effed up. Good to know they wouldn't let her have another one.

[Blarg]

? I didn't write it or post it.

I don't agree that dogs can't have rational thought or emotions. This piece was meant as an emotional evocation anyway, and dogs are quite emotional. It's not uncommon, just like with people who are married, than when one of two dogs that has been raised together dies, the other dies shortly after, even though healthy. This has happened to a few friends of mine, and I've heard of it happening with others too. It would sound crazy that a dog could die of a broken heart, but think about how crazy it sounds that a person would. Very crazy, right? But, it happens.

Mostly the people I see say animals have no feelings or thought are of two types, and the tendency to think that way about animals is even more pronounced when the two types coincide in the same person.


First, Christians who want to insist that the entire planet was designed by God exclusively for the use of people, with that as the entire reason for existence of everything else on it, which has about the same intelligence or spirit, or simple utility, as a brick or a nail.

Second, people who grew up without animals, which often suggests a parent with a stated or unstated phobia about animals or dislike for them.

These outlooks lead to objectifying animals.

Personally, I think they lead to objectifying people, too. Raising animals can teach kids -- and adults -- a lot. Kids are born selfish, and raising and dealing with an animal can do a lot to socialize children and teach them respect for things and an ability to empathize with and pay attention to others. Not infrequently at all, adults have a woeful deficit of the same qualities.

I trust the maturity and wisdom of people who don't like animals, or think of them as only "things" that don't feel and are just mindless machines made of flesh and ruled by simple instinct, much less. I might trust their basic intelligence, but there's something missing from them, and more likely something they fear in themselves and try hard to suppress. The objectivizing of others and holding of one's social group, religious denomination, racial group, or simply one's species or just oneself as somehow apart and superior, as for some reason a special case, reflects a dislike of the world and anger toward it, and a desire to treat others in a lesser way. I would trust people who say some creatures don't have thoughts or feelings far, far less to babysit a child, or to raise one, and lower the bar on my expectations for how good a friend they might be. Objectivizing other things and being without compassion toward them aren't markers of a very evolved soul, in my book.

The funny thing is, when animals know it. I had a friend who hated animals. He thought that was their own fault, because of their natural inherent worthlessness and nastiness. He offered to kill my cats for me a few times, in all seriousness -- as a favor. He just thought it was an option I should consider. Hey thanks! I only had two and cats pretty much take care of themselves; it's not like they were running my life. Animals can smell these guys coming. They'll clear out of a room sometimes when these guys are around, or seem inexplicably(to people) cold, scared, or stand-offish around these people. These are the guys who lay their coats on a bed in a house and pick them up later to find the cat has pissed on them, though not on any others. Coincidence?

My friends and I had a huge laugh at the expense of this one animal-hating friend who came over to my place once. He was sitting on the couch, and my cat walked up to him. His legs were crossed, and we couldn't really see what was happening. The cat seemed to be looking around at all of us, smiling, if a cat can really smile. As we were all yapping away, my friend looked down at his lap, looked up, looked over at me, and looked down at his lap again, stunned. My cat didn't even know him, but knew enough. He had walked right up to him, faced backward, and peed all over him. My friend couldn't believe it even as it was happening. The rest of us almost died laughing. We had to credit the cat, too. The cat knew, right away. He had never done that to anyone before, and he never did it again. I guess it seemed like the thing to do at the time -- and not a one of us could really disagree. I'm not sure that even the guy who got peed on thought it was all that far out of line.