The Eternal Child

"The Eternal Child"

I've always thought that the tragedy of being a puppy... (I hate that word "dog" as in "she's a dog!"--meaning "ugly" - or as in "worked like a dog!" or as in "the dog days of August") - the tragedy of being a puppy is that a puppy is an eternal child.

If you have an "owner(s)," you are at his (their) mercy. You can even be sold or given away--yes, like a "slave." If you have to beg for food like a child begs for food, then you are like a child. If you have to beg to be taken out for a walk, then you are like a child. If you cry when your owner(s) leaves you and jump for joy when he returns, then you are like a child.

Can a puppy do whatever he pleases, whereever he pleases, whenever he pleases? Not without being checked every step of the way like a child would. Puppies are the Peter Pans of the Animal Kingdom living in the Neverland of human domestication. Cats grow up and do as they please. If they are hungry, they hunt mice and feast all they want.

If his owner decides to feed puppy only once a day, what choice does puppy have except to feel "starved" most of the time? Unlike a human child, though, a puppy bears his starvation silently, patiently. He doesn't cry and wail. He wags his tail a lot whenever food's around. He sniffs around the kitchen for any trace of crumbs.

If his owner decides not to take puppy out for a walk or to the park and set him free but keeps him within the confines of the house and backyard, puppy has no choice but to bear his "imprisonment" silently and sleep it off (then he is called "lazy" and told that he has it too easy and has nothing to complain about).

If his owner has to work and leaves him all day in a confined space (a "cage") until he returns from work, puppy has no choice but to bear his loneliness with resignation and to hold for hours his need to pee and pooh. But his owner is not "cruel." Oh, no - that's just the way things are. And who's puppy to complain? He's just a "dog," under subjugation by the great Master Race: humans (makes you wish a Planet of the Apes on some people so that they can see what it's like!).

Sometimes a puppy is the bottom step in a pecking order: father picks on mother, mother picks on oldest son, oldest son picks on sister, sister picks on younger brother, younger brother picks on puppy.

A puppy is one of the most forebearing and long-suffering creatures.

Puppy is not only a child without a will of his own; he is not only a "slave" that can be bought or sold or given away; he is at times, indeed, nothing but a "dog."

A puppy is a "dog" if he is treated like one. A puppy is an "eternal child," if he is treated like one. A puppy is "man's best friend," if he is treated like one.

The "eternal child" is a guaranty of a puppy's dependency on his owner and master--guarantied "affection": you don't bite the hand that feeds you, the hand that houses you.

Puppy Love is something else. Puppy Love is real care, real concern, real affection for a creature that - even though of a different species from our own and with whom we cannot communicate on the same level as with those of our own species - is capable of great intelligence and affection; a creature that - while not a wind-up toy - can make you laugh, can make you cry, can make you play; a creature with whom you can be best buddies and best friends, with whom you can share very special moments and with whom you can have a special bond. Puppy Love.