The One With the Waggily Tail

When people don't know what to talk about with other people, they tend talk about their dogs, because it's slightly more interesting than talking about the weather, and it's definitely less provocative than talking about the latest technological advances in clitoral-stim devices, and it's usually more entertaining than talking about their cats. Unless the cats in question are consuming Christmas tinsel and/or string that then comes out of the cat's asshole.

So, people, I've noticed, talk about their dogs-- especially people at work. One psych tech with whom I work was recently bellyaching his misfortune at getting a "fucked up" dog from a shelter. The dog routinely runs, at full tilt, until he collides head-first with the wall, spins around in circles until it throws up and is thought to be, generally speaking, disordered in the brain department.

Spiking off this discussion, one of the nurses on duty approached me with her feelings of guilt that she had purchased a puppy recently from *gasp!* a pet store. She said that she agonized over the decision, because she knew it was "morally wrong" and that she "wouldn't be able to look in the mirror again" after purchasing the dog, but, as she drove away from the store, she called her friend to ask her what should she do, because she had fallen so desperately in love with this one puppy.

"Turn your car around," the friend said, "go back there, and get that goddamned dog."

And the nurse in question did just that, and she loves the dog to pieces.

"Seven hundred dollars later," she said to me, rolling her eyes. Another one of her friends, upon hearing that this nurse had purchased a dog at a *gasp!* pet store, stopped speaking to her.

And this, loves, is where my blog post for today comes in.

I have my opinions about pet stores, and the people and entities who supply pet stores with their, ahem, products. I have my opinions as a self-righteous, two-time "rescuer" of dogs from unpleasant situations. I have my opinions, and you know more than most that I am not shy when it comes to expressing them, but, when our opinions on issues get in the way of our friendships, well, then that is just very, very sad. You can have your beliefs, you can have your thoughts, you can have your views of how the world ought to be, and how others should behave, but try to have a little perspective with your lemon bread, you know?

Pet stores are not evil, the people who purchase pets as opposed to adopting them are not the devil incarnate, and there are breeders who operate responsibly, within the limits of the law, and do their best to respect the dignity of puppy life.

So. There.

Bark.