That's love, huh?
Twice recently I watched people carrying their dogs down to the subway and in both instances, the dogs were clearly not digging the experience.
In fact, one was white-eyed and struggling to make an escape (there is no escape, Rex, chill). Please note that in neither case was the dog safely tucked away in one of those cute dog-purses. Nope. Rex 1 and Rex 2 were just being hauled down the stairs into what is certainly one of the circles of hell in his owner’s arms.
People in the United States apparently really really love their dogs. To the tune of over 103 billion dollars annually. That’s billions, Asta, not millions.
New Yorkers seem to be especially attached to their pups. As in so attached, they can’t seem to leave them home when they go out. This has escalated alarmingly since our friend, The Virus, came to stay. Not only are people bringing Poopsie to the grocery store, the drugstore, and the post office they’re even bringing them to outdoor restaurants often feeding them from their plates (this is me averting my eyes).
This is all kinds of icky to those of us not completely ga-ga over dogs. For the record, I like other people’s dogs well enough when they’re not in spaces where food is being prepared and/or sold.
Just sayin’.
But what kind of “love” is happening when people are dragging an animal with extremely keen hearing as well as an almost supernatural sense of smell down into the New York City subway? Are you kidding me? Can you even imagine for a minute what that beloved member of your family is experiencing down there?
On good days, the New York City subway system is chaotic, stinky, dangerous, and terrifyingly noisy. And those good days? We remember them. These days the subway can be a real ordeal for humans even with our decidedly limited hearing and smelling talents.
So stop. Don’t put your “best friend” through that.
If you want a dog, stay home with your dog. If you want a pet and don’t want to stay home with that pet, get a cat. Or adopt one of the millions of guinea pigs being returned to pet shops and the humane society.
But if you love a dog, don’t put it through the NYC subway ordeal.
And if you do, you'd better hope karma is just a fairy tale.
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