Buddy & Prince

These are my friends, Buddy and Prince. Begging from me. Their owner lives off of cereal, cigs, and diet pepsi. They know well this plump granny COOKS. They are waiting while I cook. They will get their own dishes of my finished product.

Next, I want to apologize if I offended all dog lovers by my blog on not wanting to Dine with Doggie. It's just my opinion. You can take your dog to any restaurant you want, I just won't be there. It's not that I dislike dogs, my personal preference is that dogs should be dogs and not humans. It is an establishment owner's choice whether to allow dogs to dine, or smokers to smoke. I just know I won't sit down and eat with a bunch of dogs schlupping away at the table next to me anymore than I would sit down next to someone smoking. Just a personal thing here.
I feel I have to explain myself. I have been in European village restaurants while a dignified dog lays quietly at his/her owner's feet. No problem, in fact its quite charming. My main problem is undisciplined dogs and I have never met a housebroken dog. I'm sure some are, I've just never met one. Well, maybe Buddy and Prince are pretty close.

Someone compared dogs to cell phones and said humans do all the things I did not want to think about while eating. I thought that over. My cell phone does not sniff crotches, pee when & where the urge hits, fart in public, etc. If you know humans that are doing the same thing, I would say, change your friends! Unless you're into that sort of thing. Again, its personal preference. And, cell phones are another blog, although cell phones are close to one's ear, completely within one's own body space. We pick up voices, sounds from all around. It's up to us whether we decide to listen to other's conversations or not. Now, I'm for discouraging cell use while driving! The same as I would discourage putting your doggy in a vehicle unrestrained. (I always put Meowi in carrier and seat belt carrier in car.) Safety reasons for people and dogs. Again, more personal preference. We all got 'em.

Then, I'm also a germ freak (watching "Monk" makes me nervous). The latest story from my mother about worms that were hanging out of her dog's butt, her pulling them out, and then a blow by blow description of the worms which she put down the garbage disposal cements my feelings on dining with dogs. No thanks, not in my plate, not close to my plate. Watching doggy licking butt, and then licking food off spoons & plates gave me the desire to run out to buy (or steal from her cupboard) a round of worm meds for myself after a visit to her house.

In contrast to the American view of dogs of elevating the dogs to human status or above, look at other countries! Doggie stew in Asia (no, they are not served doggie stew, they are in it) and extreme neglect in others. I have been known to be the Pied Piper of stray dogs in Costa Rica, skinny dogs with bulging rib bones, sad eyed, desperate dogs who hang around in the street curbs by cafes and grocery stores and who are chased off sidewalks by proprietors because folks in C.R. are put off by begging dogs in public places. My daughter and I and the kids made a trip to the meat market for doggie food which we couldn't find so we settled on bags of crisp, deep fried, warm, pig ears and gathered up the poor mutts which we led away to be fed under a tree, which actions resulted in the scorn and ire of proprietors and the accusation of being crazy Yankee mammas.

Then, we can't get all the people out of New Orleans, but the news is full of stories of plans to get all the pets out. Can't we do both? There are opposites - dogs who are treated like babies, and dogs who are tied to trees out in the yard, come rain, snow, or shine. Owners who spend fortunes on their dogs, while children starve in America and around the world, and owners who refuse to even feed their dogs.

Again, Cat is sitting here by my side, asking me why she isn't even considered in the Dine with the Doggies legislation. "I don't know," I tell her. It's ok for parents to admit they don't know. Cat walks through her litter box and then tries to jump on the table. I grab for the antiseptic wipes as I speak cat language, hissing for her to GET DOWN. A blogland friend has a wonderful idea - set a separate table where the pets dine with each other!!! Splendid idea. Civilize our little critter friends, make a separate area for them where they can enjoy their food and fellowship with one another!

I guess that is one feature of these fuzzy friends of ours that God gave us, they want to do EVERYTHING with us (hmmm, I wonder if married couples were as close to each other as they were to their pets, if less divorces would be the result?). I find that many times when Cat weasels a morsel of human food from me, she doesn't even want it, but hides it away somewhere. She just wants to proved she can have what I have.