Even more alarming, dogs taking the place of our Starships.
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).
I’m not married, never have been. No children. I call my dogs my kids. They’ll never go to college, they’ll never go to jail, and they’ll never live long enough. And to me they’re my family.
I’m with this gal. I like animals too - I used to raise dogs - but enough already. They are NOT people.
I’m saddened by the FReepers on here who are ripping the writer of the article. “Get a dog” blah blah. To these people I say “get a set of priorities”.
Yes, animals are God’s creatures & deserve respect. However, they do not supersede human life which is created in the imagine & likeness of our Almighty Father. Too many people miss that point. No one is telling you not to love & care for your pets. The point is that they’re being elevated to a level above human life which is, quite frankly, sinful.
But what do you expect from a country that legally aborts it’s most innocent & vulnerable?? Just another example of our rot from within.
I read the article. I saw no examples of animals being elevated above humans. She can get her own drink of water. She has that ability. Animals don’t. I’m saddened by those FReepers who think it’s an either/or or that somehow those who love their pets and treat them as family members are somehow weird, warped, don’t have their priorities in order, blah blah blah. Live and let live. This woman’s not hurting. She’s just offended and like so many in our society these days she wants to force others to apologize for not seeing things the way she does and/or change. Won’t happen. Best advice to her: Live and let live, honey — oh, and next time you run a race — bring your own water!
BTW, I see far more examples of idolatry in the way parents treat their children than I do in how they treat their pets. Just sayin’.
ITA!
4 years ago I invited my mother on an all expense paid trip to her favorite city, Rome, for Christmas.
As part of my gift I also offered to pay all of her bills for December, any lost wages and dog sitter.
She said she couldn’t go because she couldn’t leave her dog as it was her only family.
We haven’t spoken since.
I’m going to add a spin on this to any single FReepers out there that may be online dating.
Ever see personals ads with women posing with or including their dog(s) and cat(s) as if they were children or part of the package deal?
Run like hell from anyone that does that. Trust me.
Cute little Jack Russel in that vid!
Reference the article, I don’t see what the big deal is. Does the author wish chaildren onto adults who don’t want them? Aren’t there plenty unwanted kids out there already, being raised by TV and Twitter?
Reknowned British dog trainer Barbara Wodehouse gave this advice for training dogs, which works well for raising children, too:
Be firm, be fair & be fun.
Even more alarming, dogs taking the place of our Starships.
>>> When a dog can respond correctly to the following question like any of my grand daughters can, I’ll think about it. “Sweetie, please get Poppy a beer out of the frigermalator and bring it to me”......
COMMERCIAL Stroh’s Beer - Trained dog (1984)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhHD_5F1I7g
That’s creepy about the cards; I would never sign something so stupid for someone’s pet, and would say something when I noticed that humans weren’t included.
“Mascotas” sounds about as Spanish as “internet”; I have to ask my sister-in-law (she’s Cuban, born there) about that. I’m sure the harder people’s lives were (anywhere in the world) will determine whether they have a word for “pet”.
Thanks!
Planned Parenthood in NJ must be slipping; many towns here that have a population that is officially 85% “Anglo” have school populations that are 40% “Anglo”. Go to any playground on a nice day and you’ll be shocked. Living here all my life, I’ve seen it changing for years and never believed any government statistics about it.
I know someone who works in Manhattan, and occasionally he would mention that they were filming for some movie or another over there. What stood out to him was the number of “Anglos” that would be there as extras; it gave a very false sense of Manhattan.
In Spain, at least, people will often refer to a pet dog or cat as a “perrito” or “gatita,” that is, the dimunitive, while “perro” usually refers to a working dog or dogs in general, and “gato” (or gata) refers to feral cats or cats in general.
Nobody really uses mascota much in conversation (it’s more to describe something such as a law affecting pets, a product for pets, etc.), and I’m sure it’s a fairly new term.
You have my sympathies. She probably didn’t realize how extremely offensive that was, but then, people who get into this pet mania never do seem to realize that their actual children might find it offensive to be made equal to or even replaced by a dog.
Death always makes people cry. Dogs never say they hate you.
Pretty good that those people have dogs instead of kids.
Sounds like a good deal.
To be fair, she has never tried to call me since that day, and I have paid for her cell phone since 2003 so I know that she has service.
It’s ok, I have great dogs and a new puppy who is perfect and housebroken in 2 days. She’s a miracle.
The dogs health is his responsibility. Dog insurance helps him spend less on his dog’s health. Why is that creepy?
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