If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment
If you can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct her/him,
If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can relax without liquor,
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,
...Then You Are Probably The Family Dog
8 comments:
That's lovely Lindsay, and so true! Love the dog :)
So true--and I have a soft spot for bulldogs anyway. We had them when I was a kid and every one was a great character.
It is lovely. Not my creation though. A dear friend sent it through. Although I did consider swapping the photo with a shot of my I've-already-won-lotto layabout.
I'm tempted to talk about the petfood industry.
I'm tempted to discuss the attention that people could give to eachother instead of enslaved or caged animals.
I'm tempted to tell how I love animals that can choose how to live and die themselves.
But I won't. It's such a lovely poem.
JohNZ
...Then You Are Probably The Family Dog
naa - you've probably been on a benefit for the last 5 years.
John, for a lot of lonely people a dog or cat is a valuable and much-loved companion--something that retirement homes are coming to recognise. Those with pets are likely to be healthier and happier than those without in those circumstances.
And a pet dog or cat is hardly 'enslaved"..it's a relationship based on mutual benefit and affection.
I love animals, wild and domesticated, and wild animals seldom--if ever--"choose" how to live and die themselves. They simply follow the programming that nature gave them.
kg, I actually know the studies which confirm what you say about retirement homes etc. I can agree on that, however, I think I remember that it's merely the lack of human interaction (lack of personel and/or family effort) where these animals fit in.
"Free animals" choose how to live and die in a way that humans do not decide for them. That goes way further than domestic animals vs. wild animals. But since that is too far from the original subject I'll leave it there.
Cheers, JohNZ
Post a Comment