DOGS’ THOUGHTS

What time is it? May be, it´s 5 in the morning; it´s still somehow dark.

The house is in complete silence, my owners are sleeping. I only hear some distant barks from my street-partners. They must be running after the wheels of the early bikers and cars; playing to “bite and run” with other dogs and may be some ankles.

I’m completely awake now, but I can not go out, I can not run. I must wait for some time, may be hours to be out.

Today is Sunday. I learnt to know when Sunday arrives because is the day in which I have to wait several hours to go to pee and play. I guess my owners are too tired to wake up early. I imagine they prefer to sleep till late, as they went late to bed because they were playing cards and watching some movies.

I’m happy for them. They always seem happy when they go to bed late after enjoying a party, a game, a movie, a meeting. I’m also happy when people come to my house. I jump and greet them, trying to kiss their mouths to welcome them.

Now, I have to wait some hours until they get enough rest and are awake; plus the time they take to stay in bed before standing up. Well, that is if I’m lucky; otherwise, I will have to wait some more time until they have breakfast, and finally take me out. WHAT A BLADDER I HAVE. I wonder if they were able to wait such a long time without suffering cystitis.

Well, no way. Let’s sleep for a while.

After more than five hours, my owners are awake. They are cooking a delicious breakfast; however, I know I can not taste it. Anyway, I am a dog, not a human being.

But dogs and humans are similar in their physical part. I mean, the bladder is the same. Its size is proportional to the body; therefore, after some hours it is full and it is a must to empty it.

When Sunday arrives I cannot understand how my owners jump from the bed directly to the bathroom to pee, then they go back to the bed to talk, then they cook, then they eat; and, finally they take me out to pee. Why it is so difficult for them to understand that my body works exactly in the same way than theirs, thus, I cannot wait longer.

But… ok. After breakfast, I am on the way to pee. I reach the park; I enter running and release all the urine of my bladder. WHAT A RELIEF! But, now my owner decides to go back home. This is so boring! I cannot understand why he prefers to spend such amount of time in front of that box plenty of images and sounds than playing, running, walking with me.

Sometimes, I have thought that I am too boring for him. I am going to be always the same. The same face, the same fur, the same body, the same temper, the same mood, the same way to play, etc. In the other hand, the T.V. is always different. Everyday, it shows different soup operas, different faces, different characters, different stories, etc.

But… what can I do??? I have tried everything. I wait patiently, I kiss him, I sleep all the time I can, I learn everything he teaches me, I am obedient, I play to his preferred games, I am always close to him; but nothing seems to work.

At this point, you can imagine the rest of my day. After the 5-minute journey to the park, I spend the rest of the day lying over a mat, sleeping and hoping the T.V. broadcasts a bad show; in that way, may be, my owner remembers I need to go out, I need to move, and I DO NOT ENJOY WATCHING T.V.

In fact, that is the most boring activity humans do. They forget about the rest of the world. That box should be named “hypnotizer” instead of T.V. I have to confess that I have lived the most boring hours of my life thanks to the T.V.

But, I also have another complain. It is the same when they get trapped by the computer or those modern game boxes.

Finally, I have a proposal for the human beings who own dogs.

As you own us, you have signed a commitment with us, since the very moment you decide that you like us and paid for us.

The words are the following:

1. I, the dog, swear to be with you the rest of my life, and you, the human being, swear to take care of us forever.
2. To take care of us not only means a comfortable bed, vaccines, food, water, a leash; but to provide us the physical activity we need.

P.S: You, the human being, will remember that we are animals; therefore, we need to do what we enjoy and what we need. But, we are not human beings; thus, we need different things, such us, walking, running, playing with you and with other dogs.

This is short and easy. I hope you can accomplish it for our welfare.

Furthermore, it is important to remark that we enjoy our lives being what we are; dogs. I mean, we do not enjoy wearing clothes, except if we are sick, we do not enjoy doing human activities. And, even though, we enjoy being over your bed, chairs and tables that is harmful for our mental stability, and that will alter the proper human-dog relationship.

Well…, the day is over. After ten ours of “watching T.V.”, I just came back from another 5-minutes journey to the park. My owners are sleeping again as they have to work and study tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I will be in the park early for 15 minutes, and then, I will stay all day long in my small place, waiting for them to return at night to take me out the same time.

I know this is my life, and I accept it. I am happy living with my owners, I love them, and they take care of me; but I would like they realize that during vacations and weekends they have more time that they could spend with me. They also could wake up earlier and change some mall-afternoons for dog & park-afternoons. Until I know, it is good for them to walk, play and run; that is healthy. In fact, one of our functions, duties or advantages is precisely that one; to help or to make people be active in such a sedentary world.

I always propose, but I cannot express it, that dog-owners imagine or live like their dog-pets for a day, in order to find how it is, and if there are aspects to improve.

May be it is useful for people to know that we enjoy learning commands and tricks, as well as playing. There are some works we can do also. We could learn “agility”, we could become search and rescue dogs, we can carry a bag with stuff (groceries, our belongings, etc.), and we can help handicapped people. All those are activities that make us happy, active, healthy and that help humans in the same way.

And for the parents, they should imagine their kids enclosed in the house all day long for life, going out just some minutes. The world is plenty of dog schools, where we can enjoy our days meanwhile they work and study; but we are kind, and those places are not mandatory for us. We just need somebody to organize his/her time, think about us, and provide us the journeys and activity we need.

Thanks a lot for paying attention to my thoughts.

Hoping these words improve the life of some dogs,

Sincerely yours,

Your Lovely Pet.