Pity the Pups

My son and his family, the Ohio Cosgriffs, are up this weekend for Thanksgiving. They brought their dogs along with them, and that's cool. Gaspode and Riley are quite welcome here at this one branch of the Michigan Cosgriffs.

Naturally enough, the animals pay more attention to my son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter than to me, at least when the aforementioned folks are nearby. Yet they have learned to begrudgingly live with the lesser evil if their more direct adoptors are not at hand.

Yesterday the Ohioans went shopping, leaving the pups home with me. The pets spent the appropriate amount of time pining for their masters, whining a bit and routinely marching between the living room window and the closed dining room door where they had witnessed the departure of their Ohio family.

But they eventually gave that up and, to my surprise, began paying attention to me. I was working at the desktop computer, doing real work and not playing video poker at all, mind you, occasionally arising for a cup of coffee or to make myself a turkey sandwich or whatever. Quickly enough the dogs would jump off the couch where they had laid, having given up all hope of their favored humans returning, and follow me around. 

I hope it was to show that they loved me and wanted to make sure I didn't leave them either. Yet I suspect it was really only in the hope of getting a treat or two out of pity. 

They did get that. After all, I'm not inhuman, even knowing they would abandon me when the Ohio Cosgriffs returned. Which they promptly did.

How to electrocute your cat

All right, I don't actually want you to electrocute your cat. Indeed I don't want you purposely harming any of your pets. But my old friend Ben the electrician did in fact accidentally electrocute his cat one day.

As I said, he was an electrician. Specifically he worked on electric motors. And he had these, well, what he always called jumper wires which he used to power up motors directly, when he was testing whether the wiring might be bad on a unit.

He also had a cat that hung around his shop. One summer day as he was testing a motor the jumper wires slipped from his hands. They fell towards the floor, and they were live. The cat was laying at Ben's feet, as was jolted by the the jumpers which hit him simultaneously. The poor animal shook violently for a second, then went limp as Ben kicked the wires away.

He figured the cat was a goner, but left it alone for the moment as he was quite busy. He intended to take care of it properly later. But in about twenty minutes the cat raised up slowly, shook itself as though tossing off sleep, and meandered to the back of the shop where its food and water were. The cat was okay, and Ben felt better because hadn't actually, severely harmed it.

So no harm, no foul. But that is how Ben electrocuted his cat.

Disappointed dogs

I wonder if anything is more disappointing that a disappointed dog?
My son and his family are in for the weekend, and they brought their two dogs. They're good dogs. They aren't any trouble at all. But boy, do they miss their masters when they're gone.
I'm alone downstairs with them right now. Charlie and his family are momentarily out. But the dogs clearly want them. If I go upstairs for a second then return, I find them sitting at the dining room door, staring. They clearly were hopeful of something better, and then I appear. They let me give them treats, which I do because I feel bad for them, then slink off to their pillows or the couch to pine for the folks they actually want to see.
What can you say? "Sorry, I'm not who you want." But the ones they want will be back soon, and then, oh joy, oh rapture. Until then, they will nonetheless graciously accept my pity treats.

Them darn cats

We all have things happen to us which we simply do not understand. For me, a few such things have happened over the last few days.

I was visiting my son and his family this past weekend. Out of the blue their cat Mika, who spends most of her days hiding from their dog, decided I was her best friend forever. Each time I sat down (whenever the dog wasn't nearby anyway) she would rush from her hiding spot and leap onto my lap. I mean she would come out in no time flat. I would pet her until she tired of it; even then she would simply settle into my lap and purr. At least until Gaspode, the dog, appeared. Then she was off to burrow somewhere where he couldn't get near her.

Now Luna, my son in law's cat who is living with us along with my daughter and said son in law, has decided that she must be in my lap whenever I deign to sit down. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to type out a blog post with a tabby across your lap? Yes, I'm managing it, but still.

The thing is I'm really not a pet person. I like pets along the lines of jokes about grandchildren: spend a little time with them then send them home (all right, I do like my grandchild a bit better than pets). Why Mika and Luna have decided I'm all that is puzzling. Oh, I try to treat pets well, but why I apparently put out an aura of adoring them escapes me.

I'm sure it will pass. Not all of my admirers adore me for eternity. And I don't know why that is either.

More Evidence that Americans are Decadent

There is now a line of fresh food available for dogs. Yes, dogs. It is available in the refrigerated pet food section of our grocery stores (they have those?). A commercial which has been airing over the last few weeks, in the Detroit area anyway but presumably nationwide, advertises it. It shows a mother going to a cabinet, taking a bag of generic dry food from it, and pouring it into bowls for her children waiting at the dinner table. The voice over guy says something like, 'You wouldn't feed your kids this way. Why feed your dog like that?'

Um, because it's your dog. And it should be stressed, only your dog.

To be fair, if someone wants to spend money on deli fresh foods for their dog, there is certainly nothing intrinsically evil about it. Further, it must be allowed that there is no direct and immediate connection between the other troubles in the world and Americans feeding their dogs this way. Still, it's one of those things which reeks of a sublime yet profound arrogance. There are starving children in the world who might love a bit of kibbles and have nothing, yet we Americans can serve our pets fresh meat based products out of our refrigerators.

It might even be said that if you really want to feed your dog that way, then why not go ahead and feed them exactly what you feed the kids anyway. Burgers off the grill? Give one to Fido. Why on earth do we need processed food aimed at our pets, except that we're Americans, and we can afford it.

It becomes fair to ask why we should care so much for mere animals when there are so many other problems in the world. It isn't as though dogs won't eat the dry stuff, and with such appreciation as they can muster. They'll still be, relative to their nature, happy.

But we are encouraged to treat them, again, relative to their nature, like kings. That's decadence, plain and simple. It does open one's eyes to why much of the world think of us they way they do.