#305 My Pet Peeve

I love dogs. For most of my life, a dog has graced the inner sanctum of my home—a boon companion, a solemn source of solace when things are bad, a giddy, panting, what-do-you-want-to-do-now when things are good. A bundle of willingness and clumsiness and unreserved joy. Dogs and their chosen humans get on good. But a dogs genetically-hardwired function, to protect the pack, which the dog’s owner is an extension of, can sometimes lead to trouble with the neighbors. Humans spread their courtesy more thinly than dogs. A human who doesn’t like his neighbor will nonetheless small talk with him. That same human, safe behind the confines of his own walls, will curse said neighbor and all his faults. Many of those curses fall on doggie ears. Even if they don’t understand every word they are completely capable of grasping the sentiment and putting said person on their doggie doo list. Dogs are not as disingenuous as humans, so when next little Fifi encounters the neighbor in question the yapping commences. Or if the dog is larger, he charges at the neighbor out to the perimeter of the property—and sometimes beyond. That brings us to a couple of human stories involving dog deaths at the hands of neighbors. In one, a family is suing their neighbor for a million bucks, saying he ran over their dog on purpose. The man served 90 days in jail for reckless endangerment. The family is seeking monetary damages for loss of companionship. Currently, the most a family could hope for is compensation to purchase a similar size and breed of pet, training, shots, etc. The law defines pets as property and not companions. This case seeks to break that trend. The dog was old and senile, and had taken to sleeping in the middle of a private road used by numerous neighbors. A case up north involved a man who used a shotgun on a dog that he said charged him. The dog was unleashed and on the man’s property. The dog’s owner maintains that her dog is gentle and loving and her next-door neighbor is a vicious brute. I had a dog who was an incredibly loving dog—to me. But whenever a friend or neighbor was on my property and turned their back, he would jump em. Dogs are like that. So I did the responsible thing. I kept him on a leash and didn’t let him roam free through the neighborhood. And, oh yeah, I didn’t let him sleep in the road in front of my house. Just like I didn’t let my young kids play in the road. Why? Because my dog and my kids were too dumb to know better. And because it’s not my neighbor’s responsibility to watch out for my companion or my property if I leave it outside my yard. And if a big dog comes into that yard and charges at me, teeth bared and growling, small talk or no, I’m gonna protect myself. Loving my neighbor does not include being mauled by his dog. Sorry, that’s why they say responsible pet owners.
America, ya gotta love it.