The image above is of the two non-human things on this planet that bring me the most happiness (Otis, my 116 lb Lab/Mastiff mix and my motorcycle).
Jon Katz at Slate takes a rather inconclusive look at “The Real Reason We Love Dogs”:
Social parasites inject themselves into the social systems of other species and thrive there. Dogs are masters at that. They show a range of emotions—love, anxiety, curiosity—and thus trick us into thinking they possess the full range of human feelings.
They dance with joy when we come home, put their heads on our knees and stare longingly into our eyes. Ah, we think, at last, the love and loyalty we so richly deserve and so rarely receive. Over thousands of years of living with humans, dogs have become wily and transfixing sidekicks with the particularly appealing characteristic of being unable to speak. We are therefore free to fill in the blanks with what we need to hear. (What the dog may really be telling us, much of the time, is, “Feed me.”)
If you own dogs, you know exactly what the poorly-named Mr. Katz is talking about.
For the first two or three years that my wife and I dated, I knew without a doubt she loved her Beagle puppy (Lady Jack of Nacogdoches, or “Jackie” for short) more than me. In fact, I once posed to her the hypothetical “What if Jackie and I were both tied to a railroad tack with a train bearing down on us, and you only had time to save one of us?”.
It wasn’t until several years later when she finally conceded that she’d save me first, that I knew it was time to get married.
More from Katz:
If the dog’s love is just an evolutionary trick, does that diminish it? I don’t think so. Dogs have figured out how to insinuate themselves into human society in ways that benefit us both. We get affection and attention. They get the same, plus food, shelter, and protection. To grasp this exchange doesn’t trivialize our love, it explains it.
We don’t have kids. We have dogs instead — in addition to Otis (3) and Jackie (10), we also have another Beagle, Kosmo (6), which was my Valentine’s gift from my wife the year before we got married. But they are very much a part of our family.
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Original post: Why People Love Dogs by at Google Blog Search: dog most trick Blog tag: Dog most trick Technorati tag: Dog most trick
Oh, boy! You’re going to drive that Nazer guy nuts. I love dogs. What’s not to love? Why over analyze it. Hell, you can say the same about babies.
what about pit bulls
Nazar is actually an intelligent cat, who surfs the computer once his owner leaves for work… that I’ve figured out.
Robbie, this is a cool post.
Growing up, we had a full-blooded German Shephard, named Lucy. My mother told me stories about Lucy keeping an eye on me when I’d go outside to play. If I ran toward the street, Lucy would drag me back into the yard (kicking and screaming the whole way) by my cloth diaper. Lucy wouldn’t let me do a damn thing.
I remember her so well, to this day. What a cool dog-mommy she was.
My how times have changed…
This might sound ego-centric, but I have the vague suspicion that you posted this to elicit a response from me. Very well then.
Dogs are wild animals that know only the language of force and violence. A dog must be beat and punished for every misbehavior, because the second one might kill someone. Need I link to the countless stories of some pit bull mauling little girls?
Their “domesticity” is only a guise. A “domestic” dog is one who has been beat into submission over the years, and even then, it’s not fully out of their system. There are many instances of “friendly” dogs turning on kids and hurting them…or worse.
Not only that, but dogs tend to be exceptionally stupid. Most of them will bark at a completely inconspicious passer-by, for no other reason than because they can. And they say heavy-metal is noise pollution.
I concede that dogs have some uses, such as searching for drugs, and they are some of the best animals to dissect, but other than that, they are far more trouble than they are worth.
Dogs are indeed parasites, leeching off man’s hard work and civilization. They may play nice on the surface, but all that is needed is that one spark to get them going, and they turn on you.
By any measure, dogs are a public danger. Should I be allowed to keep a lion or a full-grown gorilla because I think they’re “cute and friendly”? Hell, dogs aren’t even cute.
The noise pollution(barking), the environmental pollution(shitting and pissing anywhere they like), and the physical risk posed by dogs should make them illegal. It’s a common-sense measure, and I can’t help but wonder why no one has thought of it yet.