Hello again!
On Friday of last week, I was driving my daughter Amanda and her boyfriend Cal to the Oak Grove T stop. We got to talking about dogs, and how they don't have the same swagger as the dogs of my youth had.
Find out what's happening in Woburnfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Back then, you knew all the tough dogs around, and they knew they were tough dogs. You knew the ones to steer clear of and the friendly dogs who were just out visiting the neighborhood.
When I got back home, I was sitting on the steps, and the dog from next door came over for a visit. As I sat and gave LuLu a pat, it occured to me that dogs are not what they used to be at all. When I was a kid, dogs roamed free in the neighborhood all the time. They amused themselves the way dogs should, they played. They chased us all over the neighborhood, they got into the trash, and generally just had fun.
Find out what's happening in Woburnfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Nowadays, dogs don't get to do that. They go to the big box pet stores for grooming and primping, as opposed to the saturday bath in the tub my dog Happy used to get. (Dial soap did the job). Toenails clipped? The neighborhood dogs in my youth wore their toenails down the old fashioned way: by digging and scratching!
On many mornings, when I worked early in the day, I would see people walking the dog at 5 a.m. with a plastic bag dangling in their hands waiting to pick up the dog doo. What? Dogs are supposed to do their business and leave it, thats what nature intended, we never picked up dog doo unless we were going to throw it at another kid! One time, one of the neighborhood dogs was chasing a car and got thrown, he ended up with a small rock embedded in his head where it stayed for about a week until it fell out on it's own.
In my corner of N.Woburn, I have dogs on two sides of me. There's LuLu, who most of the time gets to be a regular dog, poking around the two yards, stopping for a pat, and moseying along, and sometimes, when my grandaughter Camryn is here, she comes up to play. Then there's Bongo and Sweetpea out back. They stay fenced in all day, and you can see they look jealous when LuLu is over my house. You can almost read their minds: "Hmmm, she gets to roam and we are stuck here." But they also get pampered to no end, Their owner speaks to them like little humans, he will say things like: "We are going for a ride, aren't we Bongo?" "Sweetpea said she wants to go, didn't you Sweetpea?" "Yes I heard you say it to Mommy." Nice guy, my neighbor, but really? Come on! The two dogs look at him like: "What the heck is this guy saying?" It's the same look all those pampered pet store shampooed dogs have on their faces as their owners exit the pet stores with them in tow. You know they are thinking, "If I ever get the chance, even for a minute, I'm going to be a real dog!"
I suppose the changes had to come, as we become more urbanized. The days are gone when you left for work with the dog hanging out under the back porch stairs with a bowl of water, waiting until someone came home to give him supper and throw the ball, or have him run behind you while riding your bike, with that excited look on his or her face saying: "Hi! Wanna play now?" "I missed you!" Well, those days are pretty much gone now, never to return, and I miss them. Peace to you all.
