Growing up in several areas of the nation’s capital in lower and middle class neighborhoods over five decades ago, we often had several dogs on our block, there was the dog who was sometimes in a front yard who would run up to its fence, wagging his tail and jumping up on the metal link fence, as kids walking by we would reach over the fence and pat the dog, that was the friendly dog to us. Then their was the dog who was most often was chained to a tree, a fence or it’s dog house, that dog occasionally would rise from where he laid and draw as near as the chain would allowed and bark at us before returning to his normal laying spot, that dog to us was the angry dog and there was the dog who often escaped his dwelling, most of us kids would run, jump on the hoods of park cars and sometimes scream as he came toward us, he was the unknown dog to most of us, maybe we were not giving that dog a chance to know us, maybe that dog wanted to be friends.
Unless a dog was Rin Tin Tin, Lassis or another famous dog, looking back most of the dogs we were around seem to have a lower standard of life , of course in better neighborhoods they most likely had more. Dogs have receive a upward bounce of the ball so to speak from those days in most neighborhoods lower or upper than what we observe as children . Some what like some of us, compared to the dogs of today, think about it, there are huge pet stores with toys, costumes, snacks baths, grooming, health care, dozens of name brand foods to choose and that’s just some of the perks, paid dog walkers, dog parks and more, dogs back when we were children had far less in our neighborhoods, couple of small shelves on part of one aisle in some corner grocery stores and little else.
There maybe more dogs in my neighborhood now than small children, people walk by my residents with their dogs nearly every thirty minutes of a day most even pick up their mess after their pet, some dogs stay inside apartments or homes, some sleep in beds that are better than some homeless folks sleeping on sidewalks or out in the cold, dogs give licks and get kisses from some dog lovers causing some people to say, if I died and could come back as an animal, I’d like to come back as a dog.
Life has really changed in a good way for man’s best friend, of course it would be nice if more similar good changes were for people in need, that may sound crazy to even think about some dogs life and compare them to some humans but watching news, seeing unfortunate people unable to get their daily bread or those in France protesting and wanting a piece of a better life, when we look at our history here or some people who’s over all life has worsen in this rich country, it may not seem so crazy of an comparison, but that will be left to each individual to make their judgement. Most dogs are too smart to get in the mud and rubble over humans matters, dogs are lovable, good around children and adults, they learn to help the blind, law enforcement, certain illnesses, and get along quite well with each other and some even like the mail carrier.
We must not forget their are still dogs that need a home like some homeless or that some are abused like some people and even some, dare I say it! , well a few who may not be a mans best friend also like some humans but most can be if you give them a bone, oops, a chance or two, if we do maybe we can learn to give each other the benefit of doubt too, maybe even encourage more billionaires to have less greed and donate more toward helping their fellow brothers and sisters before the dog in some bites.
Often a story does not end up were one starts out or where one thought it was going, this may be one such article. Helping one or even many humans can maybe help humans become best friends with humans, after all most dogs don’t mind sharing their friendship with lots of humans.
crumbsfromymind.com 