34
"Hello," said one dog to the next.
"Hello; what are you doing today?" the second dog replied.
"Oh, just visiting a friend."
In countries across the world, animals are treated differently. I am talking here, about dogs and cats in particular. Although I am accustomed to animals being the sweet pooches and princesses of the household, wearing cute clothes and booties even, sporting fancy collars.
Here, animals are from the streets. They are not all hood-rats. Although some do take pleasure in chasing and killing chickens, and chasing people on bicycles. Here, street-dogs are still lovable-they come up to you for food or attention, or out of curiosity. But to the people at large, animals have their own lives. It is comparable to how I might view pigeons--I ignore them, they skirt around me in case I drop crumbs, I find them slightly gross (mites and whatnot), they find me quite scary--and we go about living our own lives.
Even dogs with owners roam the streets without collars, free to visit other homes, and scout out their territory.
Here, pooches without collars are susceptible to another foe. The Westerner. (Well, technically Northerner). An injured, cute, well-behaved animal in the street, will be whisked away to get fixed up at the clinic and re-homed. So in all honesty, it's not so bad for the animal (but I may think so because I am a Westerner). We say that "they get their Green Card." These animals will stay with their new parents likely for life.
Ty was one such street dog . . .
* * *
Freedom on the streets? Or health and longevity with human rules?
