The Differences Between Me and My Dog Run Deeper Than my Haircut

 


Once every five weeks I take our family dog Otis to the Mutt Hutt in Republic for his grooming. Otis always comes back looking great, smelling better, and in a good mood after playing with the other dogs.

Dog grooming can be rather expensive, but I’m told that the clients don’t always sit still. And there is also barking involved, and client snacks and an occasional potty clean up when the clients get to playing too hard!

If I post a photo of Otis and his new haircut, friends far and wide comment on how cute he looks. At home after a grooming, family members make a fuss over Otis telling him he looks great.

Now contrast this to my own experience after a visit to get my haircut in Republic. Every five weeks, I sit patiently in the chair, I never make a mess, and my barber never has to give me treats! But, I do leave happy.

Ironically, when I post pictures of myself with a new haircut, I get no notice. No one comments about me being a doll, adorable, or even clean! At home, my haircut normally goes unnoticed.

I don’t think this discrepancy has anything to do with the skill of the people doing the work. Sarah at the Matt Hutt and Luke at Vibes Barber Lounge both provide excellent service at a great price.

I could take it personally and say that people love my dog more than they love me. But I know that is not true. It all probably says a lot more about how we Americans now feel about our pets.

Since the 1970s, Dennis Prager (a columnist and educator,) has been asking students if they would first try to save their drowning dog or a drowning stranger. For 40 years, he has received the same results: “one-third vote for their dog, one-third for the stranger, and one-third don’t know what they would do.”

Prager adds that recently the poll has begun to shift in favor of the dog and he finds that alarming. What we have in this poll is the classic tension between feelings and values.

All of us feel more for a being we love than for a being we do not know, let alone love. Therefore something must supersede our feelings -- that something must be values.

But these values must be perceived as emanating from something higher than our opinions.

I take a lot of teasing about how often I post on social media about my dog. I’m not ashamed to admit that we do baby and pamper the little fellow.

But at the end of the day, he is a dog. While many of us can love our four-legged companion’s, I do hope that as a society we remind ourselves that there are some supremely important differences between a human and a dog. Those differences are much greater than simply the price of our haircuts.

MORE INFORMATION

Does this article make you interested in taking the Engaged Neighbor pledge? Five categories and 20 principles to guide you toward becoming an engaged neighbor. Sign the pledge online at http://engagedneighbor.com.

Contact the blog author, David L. Burton at dburton541@yahoo.com.


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