When I was growing up we always had a dog. My friends had dogs as well. The breed didn’t matter. They were our faithful companions. The extra fielder in the backyard cricket game, the skulking enemy when playing war games, always ready for rough-housing when no one else was. They shared the punishment when things got broken, kept us warm on cold nights and guarded our houses when we were not home.They taught us about friendship, loyalty, responsibility and with their short lives, death.
A few years ago the role of the dog started to change. All of a sudden they became a fashion accessory. It all started with those famous people that have done nothing worthy of fame. They started carrying around large bags that seemed to contain a dog that looked like a cat with a personality disorder. All of a sudden girls with nothing but air between their ears had to have a little yapping dog in her handbag as a fashion statement too. It was the greatest thing since anorexia.
Eventually the media started making fun of this trend which led to the yapping handbag not being very chic any more. So what happened to all those little lap dogs ?
I bring this up because the other day I went to the pound with a friend that wanted a new dog. As we wandered among the cages it amazed me that small dogs far outnumbered their bigger bretheren. When I was a kid it used to be nearly all large dogs in the pound. Abandonded by dimwits that bought a small cute puppy, never thinking that it would grow up. There seemed to be a lot more dogs than I remembered as a child as well. All of this together made me really angry.
You need a license to drive a car. You have to jump through hoops to get a bank loan. In fact nearly everything in this world that involves some responsibility requires you to prove that you can handle it first. Anyone can buy a dog though.
I believe there should be some sort of test before you can get a dog, or any pet for that matter. If you want a dog for the wrong reason you should not be allowed to have one.
