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).
Everyone likes murder movies or war movies or cowboys and indians. No problem seeing people die, it’s an everyday occurence in real life. Who would want to watch a movie where pets get killed? What would be the plot?
???
Ever been to Britain? Pets all over the place, same in Japan.
Besides, when they come to America, they get like Americans.
I haven’t seen anything in these threads, or anywhere else, that shows animals being elevated to a level above human life. How exactly would that be done? By people loving them and being responsible for their health? By people calling them human names, or feeding them well or buying them toys? None of that looks to me, as elevating them above human life? Are people dying for their pets? Are they having abortions because of their dogs?
You’re very understanding.
THANK YOU! That piece of information fits perfectly into the puzzle that was presented to me in the late 60s by an Italian immigrant. He had received a classical education which, at the time, was the trend in Italy. Essentially, children were introduced to their heritage through studying the Roman Empire. This was accompanied with a study of the Latin language. As they progressed in their studies, they were then introduced to the Greek Empire and its language.
This friend assessed the american landscape at that time and made a pronouncement I will never forget. Seeing the rise of feminism in the US, he described how the same phenomenon occurred in both Rome and Greece. It was soon followed by a rise in homosexuality, after which, those societies collapsed under the weight of moral decay and the destruction of the human family unit. He then predicted I would witness this in my lifetime.
At that time, the US was still viewed as the most powerful country in the world. The notion of these events manifesting themselves in my lifetime was laughable. I stopped laughing decades ago as I watched his predictions manifest themselves. Now, you have added yet one more element to that picture.
True.
Just goes to show that people are people, no matter when or where.
Not a lot of sequels or similar plots.
Like I said, not a lot, especially compared to movies with people killing and getting killed.
Think how much human suffering could have been prevented across history if only those 13 words you wrote were studied, understood, and taken to heart! In some ways, this is “Tell me what is conservatism while standing on one foot”.
My dogs are better behaved than most people’s children.
I have no doubt!
One of my favorites is from Livy's introduction to his history of the Roman people: “... I would then have him trace the process of our moral decline, to watch, first, the sinking of the foundations of morality as the old teaching was allowed to lapse, then the rapidly increasing disintegration, then the final collapse of the whole edifice, and the dark dawning of our modern day when we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them.....of late years wealth has made us greedy, and self-indulgence has brought us, through every form of sensual excess, to be, if I may so put it, in love with death both individual and collective...” TITUS LIVIUS 59 B.C. TO 17 A.D.
Well, I’m guilty too and I refuse to see it as all that horrible. We all wanted grandchildren but it didn’t happen. Now I have two precious granddogs and they are adorable.
So sue me, or whatever .
When the dog died in that movie, the movie died too.
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