My dog and I both agree with you. :-)
Posted on 06/30/2011 3:29:04 PM PDT by NYer
Dogs are often given the title “man’s best friend.” I get that. However, a new title has surfaced which turns one’s dog from friend to family. These days people address their dog as “baby.”
Last December, I received a Christmas card in the mail with someone’s dog in the spotlight posing as Santa. Cute? Sure… until I read the caption which read, “Baby’s First Christmas.” This was just the beginning of my observations.
More recently, I met a rather chatty woman in the post office. She was in the process of picking out a Father’s Day card for her son. Her only requirement was that the card include a dog in its design. At first, I thought this to be an innocent request. After conversing longer, she shared that her son’s ex-girlfriend (who I gathered used to live with him) left her two dogs with this man after her departure. The mother was duly impressed with her thirty-year old son’s ability to take care of these creatures. So much so that that was in fact the motivation behind purchasing a Father’s Day card for him. So, would such a mentality make her a grandmother?
I found that encounter bizarre enough, and did not think it could be topped. I was wrong. In my neighborhood, it is not a rare sight to see folks taking advantage of trails that line the roads. On one occasion, I came across a woman roller-skating. As I passed in my car, I glanced over to see that she had a baby carrier strapped to the front of her chest. I expected to see a child. Instead, a dog was strapped in with its legs dangling and its ears blowing in the wind. I passed in shock.
A few days later, I ran a 5k in some brutal heat. Surely, if anyone had offered me water, I would have happily accepted. That didn’t happen, but I did overhear someone ask the couple behind me if their dog could use some water. I glanced behind me to see a bottle of water being held up to the dog’s mouth.
It is not just water alone that is being offered to dogs these days. The options are endless from doggie cones at the ice cream shop to the best beef in town in the dinner dish. With so many occurrences of dog doting, perhaps in this culture I am the one who is seen as odd. Minority belief or not, dogs will never be humans, and therefore we should stop pretending that they are.
After so many extreme episodes of canine care, I began to ponder why dogs have been promoted from pet to person. I believe it reveals a truth that is written on the human heart. The truth I am referring to is that humans are wired for self-donating love. Scripture reveals each person is made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 2:27). And who is God, if not Love? (1 John 4:8) The Triune God is a communion of Divine Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Call it a family of three. Richard of St. Victor explained that a requirement of perfect love is sharing with another person, and perfect love between two requires loving for the sake of a third.
All persons are made in the image of the Trinity, and therefore, are also drawn into communion. In marriage, God invites man and woman to model this triune love in their human family. We hear what is written on our soul echoed in God’s command to husband and wife: “God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it’” (Genesis 2:28). The love of spouses continues outside of themselves in the flesh of a human person. “For conjugal love naturally tends to be fruitful. A child does not come from outside as something added on to the mutual love of the spouses, but springs forth from the very heart of that mutual giving, as its fruit and fulfillment” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2366).
What does this truth have to do with dogs? If in marriage, husband and wife do not heed to God’s command to be fruitful in the begetting of children, then this hunger to love something outside of themselves, in union with each other, will find false expression. As seen, one example of this is in the adoption of a pet, where an animal gains the privileges of a person. They are seen as the “third” in this communion of husband and wife. It is a twisted truth, a pacifier. What these couples truly desire is a child. “Marriage and conjugal love are by their nature ordained toward the begetting and educating of children. Children are really the supreme gift of marriage and contribute very substantially to the welfare of their parents” (Gaudium et Spes 50).
Handsome dogs. Mine are Ridgebacks. Are yours? Or are they perhaps Vizslas?
Which works out in the end. Its better that the trash in society dont spread their weak genes around.
http://www.peterdobias.com/community/2010/10/a-jack-russell-doing-house-chores-so-much-fun/
Love this lil dog, Jesse. Have you seen this yet?
"Jennessa Durney has earned a MA in Theological Studies and an Advanced Apostolic Catechetical Diploma from Christendom College’s Graduate School."
Her resume doesn't suggest her attitude. Nobody offered her water but she saw dog lovers quench a dog's thirst... and that upsets her?
I disagree. Raising a child cannot be compared to dog ownership. Children are much more work.
That woman standing under that tree is in deep doo doo should a damn big squirrel wonder by.
Sure that is why they used them for emergency food when things got bad.
Good thing to be guilty of. Me, too and I’m completely unapologetic. I do wonder at those who can’t live and let live with those who consider their pets family. Says much more about them than about the people they have such a problem with.
Agreed on that! As for her snarky comment about not being offered water, she can get her own: she’s human and has that ability. Dogs cannot. They are dependent on humanity to treat them well - and they overheat much faster than a human.
My children aew raised and have lives of their own and now I have a dog that I like better than most people, so sue me.
Whatever they are, they are very handsome dogs. The Redbone Coonhound is similar as well, although I’m not sure that they can be livers.
And you are so right! Unfortunately there are many conservatives who do. If it’s not about human babies, it doesn’t count. I couldn’t disagree more (and God doesn’t agree either - despite the efforts some make to try to prop their views up Biblically.)
I have four kids ranging in age from 8 to 29.
I also have a 2 year old pit bull dog.
The dog is always happy to see me, obeys on command, never complains about what I fix for dinner, doesn’t whine for his own cell phone, never talks back, never slams a door because I won’t let him wear THAT out of the house, doesn’t hang with the wrong kind of dogs, and, other then the vet, food and a few chew toys, does cost me a whole lot of money.
Kids on the other hand......
Dogs are my favorite people... for many reasons. I do not give a damn who that bothers.
LLS
I know a couple, who have children and they both work but they don’t want to leave their grown dog alone because he’ll cry so they make the mother in law come and pick him up to babysit. They treat the dog like a child!! Its weird. its one thing to love your pet its another to treat it like a person.
Cost of a child can be $15,000 per year or $270,000 in 18 years (or half that in poorer rural area). And that is if you don't get taken to the cleaners with a divorce and child support.
From BabyCenter Cost of Raising Your Child Calculator
$130,680 for rural, two parents, no college, household income under $56,300/year, child born 2011.
$236,070 for suburb/city in midwest, two parents, no college, household income under $56,300 to $98,500/year, child born 2011.
From USDA Cost of Raising a Child Calculator
$164,250 for rural, two parents, no college, household income under $58,000/year, child born 2011, 18 year cost.
$263,934 for suburb/city in midwest, two parents, no college, household income under $57,400 to $99,390/year, child born 2011.
That is deeply brilliant... I love it!
LLS
It gets creepier. Every now and then, someone does a poll about genetic selection of children. That is, if you could genetically choose your children, how would you design them?
Typically the answers are what you might expect: faster, stronger, smarter, prettier. And usually the poll ends with that. However, one time a poll decided to go more in depth and made a startling discovery.
People wanted their children to be more like dogs and cats. The reason was both that they personally liked dogs and cats better than they liked other people, and second, because they thought that if their children looked and acted more like dogs and cats, they would be popular.
My dog and I both agree with you. :-)
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