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).
It’s considered more acceptable to kill a unborn child than to kill a baby dog or cat.
That’s an outrageous; sick thing but most people don’t see why that is a problem.
And the search for civilization continues...
I remember when my kids were growing up and I was always frazzled and untidy, and knew lots of "child-free" couples and they invariably had beautiful dogs. They lavished affection on the dogs, and the dogs loved them back. Sometimes it doesn't work out so well between people and their children. There's a little envy for their leisure and orderly lives...
But dogs don't live long, and they don't graduate from college and go on to become successful adult humans. There's a lot of joy and satisfaction in that. And then you can really enjoy what pets have to offer in the way of stress-free companionship.
Paris Hilton comes to mind: some people acquire dogs as fashion accessories. However, many of these folks often become great cat & dog lovers.
Having a pet is good practice for parenthood of real, live children - a way of weeding out the selfish and neglectful.
Better to treat a dog like a baby - than a baby like a dog!
We have elevated the animal up to the level of a person. If you don't believe me, a 7 year old girl was raped by a Liberian in the DC area.
The rapist escaped any jail time.
No one came out to protest about that poor girl. However, at the same time, Michael Vick was protested in the streets by animal lovers.
Sickening. People cared more about a dam dog than that poor girl.
Being kind to animals is one thing, but kissing them and treating them like a human being is about the same as same sex marriage, it is sick, but would you believe i was in my 30s before i was convinced that the things that happened in Sodom and Gomorrah was things that could actually happen? i did not believe that a human being could do that.
“She refers to him as her baby and me as his grandmother”.
I do think dogs act as a replacement for those not yet having children and those choosing not to have children. One of my SIL’s actually had a “baby shower” when they adopted a puppy. Not only that... she sent out actual birth announcements. (yes, she is as nutty as a squirrel turd). Christmas cards included the humans and dogs in santa hats. That did change when they actually had a human child. I have heard it referred as the “dry womb syndrome”... no children or future thought of a child; thus, the dog becomes a replacement. Just a thought
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.
You may think you're being semi-facetious. But Peter Singer, the well-heeled, sociopathic "ethicist" at Princeton who co-founded the animal rights movement when he was at Oxford, has been working on that issue for about a decade now (Peter Singer's 'Heavy Petting').
My dog Tojo is very much like a kid. Its like having a perpetual two-year-old around the house.
(Plus he’s almost as expensive as a kid and listens about as well....)
;-)
Seriously, my dog IS a valued family member, and dog people understand this. I’m willing to bet that this over-educated hectoring bimbo Jennessa ever had a dog.
Oy
My father calls himself grandpa when he tries to talk to my dog via Skpe. Big deal.
Yep, the mom buying the Father’s Day card for her son was encouraging him in a direction she would like him to go in. The ‘Baby’s First’ Santa card senders were making gentle fun of themselves. And the poor little dog strapped in for the road race was probably more direly in need of water than the resentful runner ahead of it.
Yes, I know a woman that call her dog a baby and a man that has his two boys that go everywhere he goes. Saw a guy headed to rolling thunder, had a dog in a bag like contraption on the back of his bike and the dog had his/her own goggles???? I called up and made an appointment to have my eyes checked. Sure are a lot of fruit cakes out there.
I know people who buy presents for thier dogs but they will not lift a finger to visit or help thier elderly parents. I like dogs, but the death of a dog is not the same as the death of your mother or father.
With the popularity of abortion, just give it some time.
Well in my house we really like our dog!
And we like our daughter almost as much...
(yes, that was sarcasm)
One is referring to sexuality, the other refers to compassion. Your analogy is very exaggerated.
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