Sunday 4 August 2013

It's a dog's life

Why is it that phrase - it's a dog's life - is taken to mean something less than satisfactory?  Rather like 'a dog's breakfast' (or dinner) indicates that something is a mess.   As far as I can see, my dog's life is not at all bad.  Fern gets taken for two walks every day and is fed regularly so she has no problem trying to find food.  She has a blanket in her basket and a kong to chew.  I even throw tennis balls for her sometimes when we are out for a walk, and nearly every day we have a game with the kong.  No, a dog's life is not such a bad thing at all.

We could learn a lot from dogs, to them life is amazing. Balls are amazing. Sticks are amazing. Chasing your tail is amazing.   Dogs don't think, 'This walk is not as good as yesterday's' or, 'I preferred last night's dinner'.  They just live for the moment and think, 'This is a good walk' or, 'Great! Food!'  Or so I am told.  How anybody has managed to discover what dogs actually think is beyond me.

All the same, it is sometimes quite obvious that a dog is, for example, enjoying a walk.  They don't seem to mind if they follow the same route every day, although a new route is interesting as well.  Their menu never varies, but that doesn't matter; what is important is that they are fed.  They don't get bored the way that we humans do.  If, after they have been lying in one spot for a while, they do feel they want a change, they get up and move to the other side of the room.

It seems to me that life would be so much better all round - for everybody - if we thought and behaved more like dogs.

So why not take a walk on the dog side of life?  No more cattiness. No more indecision. No more "meh". Be more dog.

2 comments:

Buck said...

I shall promptly steal this video.

Who knew "carpe diem" meant catch the frisbee? ;-)

Brighton Pensioner said...

Hey! Another dog person!