This has got to be the best time ever to be a dog. City Bark, the dog park, is about to open –– and just in time. People are walking dogs all around town and not just one at a time. Increasingly, there might be two or three connected to a leash.
What has really changed, though, are the dogs. It used to be that people had Lassie-like collies or cocker spaniels and mutts. Now the dogs look like coconut cakes on four legs. These are not the dogs I grew up with. They are not the kinds that would happily fetch a stick, bring it back and ask only that the stick be thrown again. These little dogs can barely carry a stick and wouldn’t understand why they should even if they could. They just don’t know that stick fetching is supposed to be a dog thing.
Even the dogs that do understand wouldn’t waste a fetch on an ordinary stick. Unless the tossed object was purchased from a pet shop and is shaped like some sort of critter, it is just not worth the trouble. Sticks! They’re so common. Plus they don’t even squeak.
It used to be when dogs were thirsty they would take a sip from a puddle; now there are doggie water fountains. When nature called, dogs would leave a biodegradable deposit. Now there are humans behind them with a scoop and a plastic bag. Has anyone wondered who is really in charge?
Harry Truman once said, “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” That advice still holds everywhere –– just be sure not to put the dog in the cake box.
Krewe: The Early New Orleans Carnival – Comus to Zulu by Errol Laborde is available at all area bookstores. Books can also be ordered via e- mail at gdkrewe@aol.com or (504) 895-2266.
WATCH INFORMED SOURCES, FRIDAYS AT 7 P.M., REPEATED AT 11:30 P.M. ON WYES-TV, CHANNEL 12.
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