OS Ruminates On Dog Ownership And Our Present Situation

After about of year of searching, Mr. and Mrs. OS finally took delivery of a new border collie puppy. The search through the rescue services had been futile, as every attempt to inquire about a rescued pooch was either ignored or rebuffed. We have land, twenty years of vet references, and three other of the breed in the house, so it isn't like we were novice apartment dwellers...oh, well.

In the end, we found a breeder with puppies from a great sire and dam--both cleared for genetic problems, so we don't end up with a blind and limping dog. And The Puppy did not disappoint. She is a beauty, of sweet disposition and an outgoing personality.

Today was the day to mail off the AKC registration, and make the first visit to the vet. She checked out beautifully, and never protested all the poking and prodding.

On the way over, though, it did dawn on OS that he lives in a paradoxical moment. The Puppy, in her lifetime, will likely receive much better medical care than most of the residents of this county.

The analogy is not exact, obviously: Dogs don't smoke, drink, drive cars, or engage in sexual behaviors that put them in the path of venereal diseases or HIV. Their life spans are much shorter than humans, and even though they are mammals, they are less complicated than humans. They don't marry, go to school like we do, earn wages, have to make tough decisions about life. It costs much less to treat a dog than a human, and if the costs are prohibitive or the dog is too far gone, the euthanasia route is taken.

They're dogs. Can't do that to people, because they are, well, people.

And yet--there are a lot of people in this county who don't smoke, drink, or screw around. They live responsibly. And they live on the fringes of health care availability, usually waiting until they are acutely ill before they hit the emergency room and hear the bad news about the serious underlying condition that caused the acute misery. The Puppy is going to fare better than they, because OS is a responsible dog owner. There is a disconnect here, a dissonance. OS doesn't exactly know how to resolve it, or if it's possible. But it makes him uncomfortable.

Something else, last week, made OS uncomfortable: An 11:00 pm visit to a WalMart in a small Midwestern town. He saw more than a few moms with little children (and tattoos) grocery shopping. He saw a lot more people who looked terribly beaten down by life, people who seemed to to have lost hope that life was going to get better.  He was there shopping for a bottle of wine to share with colleagues at a conference, and could not wait to depart the store. The conference involved teaching academic skills to motivated young people--all of them, even if of modest means, well-cared-for children from intact homes with motivated parents who scraped together money to make the week possible for their kids.

The contrast was disheartening. As proud and happy as he was about the kids he was teaching, he was shocked at the kids he saw at the Wal-Mart at 11:00 pm.

Something has seriously gone awry, and bumper-sticker slogans and thirty-second ads designed to ruin the life of a political opponent and the next tax scheme and the next election and the next aren't going to come close to solving the dilemma.

All OS could think of after his purchase was to get back to his conference and double down on teaching the kids he had in front of him. For now, that's still the only plan he has available.

Maybe time spent with The Puppy will renew his soul a bit, and some new idea will emerge. She's in her crate now, snoring away, blissfully uninvolved with any of the tragedies of the world outside her home.

She's doing her job perfectly, effortlessly.

She's a dog, after all.

Hats Off To Mish

Mish Shedlock proves his worth once again.

If my obscure corner of the avalanche of opinion serves to direct a few more people to his page, then I've performed a public service.

He documents unemployment numbers that the 'official' reports don't mention.

The truth is ugly, but we need the truth told in order to make our way out of this mess.

His final paragraph bears quoting here:

Look at the average age of baggers in grocery stores or greeters at Walmart. These people are not working because they want to; they are working because they have to. Demand for jobs is at an all time high while the number of available jobs and the pay scales of those jobs have both collapsed. The employment situation is not only an unmitigated disaster, things are about to get even worse with pending state cutbacks.

What I've noticed here, anecdotally: I make deposits at two banks at least once a week. Often, mine seems to be the only customer car in the parking lot. The employees, who by the way are lovely folks, seem to be looking for things to do.

My little town was hit hard in the wake of 9/11, and began to climb back out. A major fire subsequently hit the downtown business block, and the lot now stands vacant, as the insurer has gone to the wall to avoid paying any claim on the loss. The local radio station ceased broadcasting last fall. The local paper seems to be shrinking in both size and scope of coverage. The district congressman sends in op-eds to tell us that voting for massive spending will cure the massive federal deficit.

So, we're in for a long ride. Let's work on the culture in the meantime.

And, let's listen to Mish.