Each morning on my way to work, I pass a little house, ramshackle and run-down. The house is enclosed by a combination chain-link and wood fence, with the side yard visible. The yard is a sad sight, worn down to hard-packed dirt and rocks, diseased-looking scrub oaks and tufts of dead, straw-like weeds.
I take particular notice of this yard every day, because the idiot that lives there has three dogs, all of whom apparently live outside. These poor animals are out there all day, every day, in the rain, shine, snow, wind, freezing cold, or blistering heat.
The alpha dog is a beautiful German Shepherd, who acts in typical German Shepherd fashion when I drive by. He rushes the fence and leaps upward while baring his teeth and barking. He is also wagging his tail during this show of ferocity. The second, a mixed breed, is very mellow and kind of stands at the fence smiling, also wagging his tail. The third, a Husky, just sits and stares quietly.
During a recent cold spell, I drove past the house on my way to work and reflexively turned my head to see how the dogs were doing. That day, they weren't at the fence; they were in a pile against the house, trying to keep warm. Imagine-- the stucco of the house was warmer than the air outside.
*****
Sitting in The Hovel writing, I heard a dog yipping and crying. I looked out my window and saw a dog tied up outside the restaurant across the street. Being a shorthaired pointer of some kind, I know he was cold; sleet was falling from the sky and freezing on the streets and sidewalks. I'm supposing his owner just
couldn't wait to get some crappy Mexican food, so he
had to tie up his dog outside the restaurant in the atrocious weather, get inside where it's warm and order his stupid crappy lard-ridden food and then eat it in front of the restaurant's fireplace. While his dog is outside, yipping, crying, freezing.
*****
Looking around on the internet, I saw a headline on CNN today that a Marine was taped throwing a puppy off of a cliff in Iraq, and the tape is now on YouTube. I studiously avoided the headline, making a mental note not to let my mouse anywhere
near the story, lest I open it by mistake and then... I'll have it in my mind forever. Some things you just can't undo, you know?
So I was taking my daily journey over at Jezebel, and they'd posted a still of the smiling asshole, weapon in hand, sunglasses and kevlar helmet on, holding the puppy by the scruff of its neck.
Whammo!!! There it was for unsuspecting me.
Naturally, I didn't open the link. But that
still is in my head. Oh, that I could erase it.
As a child (and I still do this sometimes), when I didn't want to hear something, I'd put my fingers in my ears and say, "LA, LA, LA, LA, LA" really loud. It worked.
Now I wish I had something like that for my eyes.
