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.

The noblest of beasts: "The highest doesn't stand without the lowest"

"The highest doesn't stand without the lowest" --George Santayana

This puppy may not be a member of this overrated human species, he may not be homo sapiens erectus, he may not be a descendant of Adam and Eve (actually, most likely pithecanthropus erectus or thereabouts--male and female), he may not be one to stand with the angels (what "angels"?), he may not even have a "soul" (what "soul"?). He may be a mammal of the canine species, long descendants of the wolf family. He may be an "animal," a "domesticated animal", a "pet," a "beast." But if so, he is the noblest of beasts, the noblest of creatures, the noblest of animals.

Oh, I'm sure a squirrel--(for lack of a badger) his obscure object of desire, his favourite thing to chase--wouldn't stand much of a chance before him. Nobility might be the last thing on this puppy's mind when it comes to squirrels (a good meal to satisfy carnivorous cravings sounds more like it!). Still, as he barks from the ground at them up there on a tree branch in frustration, he wags his little tail at them and emits little pleading moans amidst the barking as if saying, "Please come back down so that I can have you for a quick snack! Be a buddy and come down! Be my meal!". Somehow this barking and its accompanying tail-wagging sounds different from his barking at other dogs and his protective barking at strangers.

As he takes off running after a squirrel he's just seen and he is about to trample underfoot someone's perfectly manicured flower bed around the tree the squirrel is fleeing towards on a life-saving upward run, I hold the leash tight and the sudden stop almost makes Puppy flip backwards and land on his side. I feel terrible guilt about having done that to him to keep him from destroying someone's "precious property" (what does a puppy know or care about such things?). But he's alright and he's so excited about seeing and chasing the squirrel that all the flips in the world wouldn't have even bothered or detered him. He makes no connection at all between that sudden stop and holder of that string responsible for it--me, horrible me, protector of neighbors' flower beds from trampling by puppies. If he notices it at all, it is as a minor inconvenience on his way to Puppy Heaven ("aaahhh, squirrel for dinner!").

I can't find a trace of "resentment" in this puppy, not an ounce of malice, not a grain of viciousness. I think most so-called humans would fail miserably on a moral comparisson chart with this puppy. Humans are capable of the most horrible emotions from malicious envy to vicious hatred and everything in between. This puppy is pure sweetness. Perhaps not to squirrels or to some other dogs or to strangers, but certainly to me--and that's all that matters, isn't it?

The sweetness, the niceness, the good-natured-ness of a puppy

What words could describe the sweetness, the niceness, the good-natured-ness of this puppy?

Whenever he sees me, he looks at me and wags his little tail. Whenever I'm sitting on a couch, he immediately jumps on it and lies on my lap, where sometimes he asks me to pet him or he simply falls asleep.

This little puppy has got to be the most social little creature on the planet. He just doesn't like being alone. He loves company--my company.

And he can't get enough of it. Anybody who's ever been heart-broken, jilted or rejected, should try Puppy Love. It is the cure for all the ills of the heart.

The Fifth Love

I suppose that Mr. C. S. Lewis would say that Puppy Love is very close to what he calls "affection," the love of parents for their children, that it is, like "affection," a kind of "need-love": a puppy is totally dependent on us like a child on his parents. Maybe so.

All I know is that when I go to the toilet in this small toilet under the stairs, he stands outside the door and cries for me to come out, and when I quickly open the door to show him I'm there (he knows I'm in there) and will soon be back with him, he lies on the bottom step of the stairs and patiently waits for me to come out. When I finally do, he makes all kinds of cute gestures and lies on his back for me to pet him. He's always by my side, he follows me everywhere, and he never ventures too far away. It is a strange feeling to feel so needed, to feel so wanted, to feel so loved.

"No greater love had a man than he who gave his life for his friends," said Jesus Christ. I get the feeling that if he could, if he had to or if he knew how, this puppy would give his life for me. I may be wrong, I may be right. Who knows what goes on in a puppy's mind? It is a strange feeling, though, to feel so loved.

Somehow, "man's best friend" doesn't seem to cut it, doesn't seem to be enough to explain it. This is as complex and complete a love as any of the others. This is the Fifth Love.