"Of course, I said. Come on over!"
I hung up and then listened to his voicemail. He says, "We're just going to stop at the dog park and then we'll head down to your place."
He has a very sweet, but large and very hairy dog, and each time I visit his place, I leave with dog hair on my clothing. I don't have a dog because I don't want one, and my wife is allergic.
I called back and asked that he bring the dog around the back and to leave her outside. Five minutes after arrival, the dog was soaking wet, having jumped into my hot tub, shook off, spraying my patio door, furniture and barbecue with dog wetness, then spent the next couple of hours whining at my patio door. When I went outside to grill, she jumped up on me, trying to get some of the food. Overall, it was not a fun experience.
I am thinking that people I know have unhealthy attachments to their pets. Here are a couple of other recent examples:
- My sister wouldn't come up for Thanksgiving because she'd have to leave her two dogs home
- Someone I know had her mother drive to town to dog-sit while she went on her honeymoon, saying it is cruel to put your dog in a kennel
- Someone else I know came home two days early from a long-planned vacation tour of Spain because she missed her dog so much. This ended a long friendship with her traveling companion who had to make a choice of cutting her vacation short or going on without her. She continued on her own because she had paid for it and couldn't get her money back.
- A friend's in-laws came to town to for a big family gathering last summer, bringing their dog, who then got in a fight with the host's dog in the middle of the party which ended with one of the dogs bleeding and the host's granddaughter in tears.
What the? Why bring a dog to Thursday Night Market? Why bring a dog out in public which might bite someone? I've seen people trip over leashes at Thursday Night Market and other places. Don't say, 'dogs will be dogs', or 'it's not the dog's fault, it's the owner's'. Why can't people leave their dogs at home when going to social events?
When did dogs go from being pets to family members with the same rights as people? When I was a
kid, dogs lived in the dog house in the back yard or in the garage. Now, they seem to have run of the house and are free to mingle with guests at parties and maybe lick the appetizers because hey, 'dogs like parties, too'.
End of rant. I feel better. For now.