A FAMILY has moved onto the property just west of us. The end of our lengthy driveway runs along their southern border. We have cats, all of which spend all or some of their time outdoors. Fortunately our houses are about 200 yards apart because...
They have staked six large dogs on chains outside their home. They look like hunting dogs. Not being either a hunter or a dog person, I question the humanity of this practice. They do have little igloo homes; they have water bowls; they have a tree for shade.
But except for the infrequent times they are permitted freedom to run around (hopefully not on my property), they are essentially prisoners. All day, day after day, these poor dogs will lay chained in the yard.
They are property, not family members. When our doggie Huxley was alive, our house was his house. He slept with us. He was part of our family, not some beast to be chained to a stake in the yard 24/7. I agree with Andy Rooney that "the average dog is a nicer person than the average person."
The mentality of people who treat dogs in this fashion is beyond my ability to understand. I have seen worse, I must say. At least these dogs have shelters to get into during bad weather. "The dog," James Thurber once wrote, "has seldom been successful in pulling man up to its level of sagacity, but man has frequently dragged the dog down to his."
Whoever said "it's a dog's life," which has a distinctly negative connotation, had in mind dogs like this, not the dogs many people keep as pets who are at once "best friends" as well as members of the family.