Poor Dog!

As I was driving down the road the other morning I saw something that really bothered me. It was a dog chained to the back of a camper, the chain was so short that it looked like the dog could barely move much less lie down or get out of its own way to do its business. This particular road is one where I have to drive a distance, turn around, and double back so that the boxes are on the drivers side of my car so after seeing this I knew I would get to take a closer look on my way back through.
Upon my second drive-by I could see with certainty that this wasn’t a dog at all. It was a statue of a dog. Thank heavens I didn’t get myself too worked up about it! In the 3 minutes between glances at this dog in the dark I had myself all ready to call the SPCA or the county animal control officer. Boy would that have been embarrassing!
What this taught me was two-fold. First, you can’t always believe what you see. Like my mother always used to say when I would be pleading my case when begging for something I’d seen on television. You know what I mean… those “we’ll send you 1500 of these things that are the greatest in the whole world for the low price of $19.95 because nobody should have to live without it.” Mom would say “it’s not as great as they make it seem or they wouldn’t be selling it for so little money.” I’d beg and cry and eventually she would cave and sure enough when it came, I’d be devastated because it was nothing like the advertisement had promised. I’d been tricked because what I’d seen on TV wasn’t real.
Secondly, I learned that it is silly to jump to conclusions without a thorough investigation in circumstances where you are not absolutely sure of the facts. Just like when one of my kids accuses the other of wrong doing. If you take only one side of the story and dole out punishments according to that viewpoint, you are probably doing so unfairly. I had judged and convicted the owner of that poor dog in my mind without having all the facts.
In conclusion I’d like to say to the owner of that statue… kudos on finding a statue so realistic looking! And to all of you whom I haven’t seen but have your dogs on a short leash, please loosen their tethers and give them love. Dogs are pack animals and need to socialize, even if it’s with us mere humans and not with their own kind. All they want is to please you and be shown affection in return.