Why do some people feel the need to decorate their pets for Christmas? Today, I saw three dogs sporting wreaths around their necks, including one made of holly. Holly bites. It can hurt you. Why would anyone do this to an animal they purport to love? Another was wearing red antlers and trying to hide behind his laughing owner.
I also saw a cat wearing an Elizabethan collar of ruffly red organza to match her four little red booties. The cat was crouching miserably on a ledge outside the local hamburger joint. I slipped her collar off and she eyed me with gratitude, then held up one of her paws so I could remove the nasty little footwear. I helped her out of her finery, left it on the ledge next to her, and resumed walking.
An angry woman came barreling out of the greasy spoon and pounced on her cat while glaring stink at me. As I walked away, I saw her cramming the wreath back over the cat's head.
I wanted to tell her how cruel it is to force an animal into hurtful (and tasteless) clothing. I fully believe that the cat was at least as embarrassed by the tackiness of her getup as she was physically uncomfortable in it. She was probably blushing under her fur.
Animals are not accessories. They are living creatures. In many cases, what is more, they are smarter and more sensitive than humans. They are certainly more sensitive than humans who would inflict this kind of torture on innocent dogs and cats.
Such fools deserve to have their best shoes chewed beyond wearability, their favorite clothing clawed to shreds, and their beds pooped upon. While they are in them.
Animals of the world, unite. Only 13 chewing, clawing and pooping days until Christmas.
42 comments:
I soooo agree with this sentiment. There is a street festival downtown in Austin twice a year to which people bring their dressed up dogs. It usually gets really hot and crowded. I feel so sorry for the poor critters.
Sister,
I'm happy to know Lani isn't prancing around in antlers and sequins.
It's events like this that make me think we'll sink, giggling, into the sea one day soon.
I can't understand why some people do this. They must have a weird sense of humour (out of my grasp)
Putting shoes on them is equivalent to torture.
Like us, cats have touch receptors all over their body. These nerve cells transfer sensations of pressure, temperature and pain from any point to the brain.
The most sensitive places on the cat's body, where the nerve cells are concentrated, are the face and the front paws. This is because these are the most important body parts the cat uses while hunting. Hunting is a vital instinct, and impeding this by covering paws with shoes causes extreme distress to the cat (I'm only mentioning cats because I know the subject better).
Count me in for the CCP day! :)
Marie
Marie,
CCP Day!! Love it.
People who have no regard for their animals' feelings deserve the doggie and kitty guillotine.
Let them eat snake.
One day, the animals of the world will rise up against us humans and make us dress in THEIR clothing, and then we'll all be forced to...um...well..wear fur. And then we'll just be Elizabeth Taylor.
Jocelyn,
That will take a lot of fur.
If we even tried that with our cat she would maul us to a bloody pulp. Sadly, on the other hand, my golden retriever Mabel would probably love it...
Michael,
Do these animals look HAPPY?
Maybe your cat should have a little talk with Mabel.
The idiocy of such pet owners is beyond me. Well done for trying to get that poor cat out of its festive garb.
Why do they do it? Because they can.
And if they don't Bill O'Reilly will wage war on them.
That cat with the antlers? You see it? Fourth photo down?
You'll be seeing that cat on the news tomorrow morning, after police find the bodies of his human companions mauled in their beds.
Completely agree with you! Animals are not little humans. I can guarantee you that I will not be putting decorations on my little dog and parading her around. I like my dog.. because she's a dog. That's how it's supposed to work.. um... right? :)
Peace,
~Chani
woof
I'm waiting for the day people start tattooing their pets and then I'll wait for the day when there's a reality show about people getting their pets tattoos.
people extend their false sense of entitlement over everything we possibly can. dominance humping via fuzzy reindeer horns.
I'm SO glad my Lucy wasn't tolerant of clothing. The only thing she wore was her harness. LOL
"Animals are not accessories" Someone needs to tell that to Paris Hilton.
Nmj,
That was no cat; it was a Barbie doll with whiskers, and an incredibly self-absorbed owner.
Sven,
"Because they can" explains most of human behavior.
If it weren't for thumbs, we'd be a lot more humble.
Dan,
You can tell he or she is plotting their demise.
If I'm on the jury, I'll go with justifiable homicide.
Chani,
It's just vanity run amok.
Stephen,
Back atcha. WOOF!
Furiousball,
So much dominance humping, so little time.
Cece,
Things Someone Should Tell Paris Hilton would be a blog in itself. A very long blog.
If she could read.
I don't even like the bandana's used around dog's necks.
Thanks!
Jali,
When I lived in the Vermont woods, I tied red bandannas on my wolf and my Bouvier. Baby, the wolf, would scrape hers off immediately, but Winnie liked hers and it saved her life once.
Bouviers resemble and even walk like bears. One day a hunter came to my door and asked if I had an animal that looked like a bear. He had had Winnie in his sights but saw the bandanna and decided that a bear wouldn't be wearing one. Duh.
But inflicting "clothing" on an animal that wears a leash and lives in a city? Stupid and cruel.
Is anyone else having trouble with Blogger? I have tried repeatedly since last night to leave comments (so far) for Velvet, Pickled Olives, Velo Gubbed Legs and Dan w/o success.
For some reason, Blogger has decided to demand my user name and password on some blogs, but refuses to recognize me.
The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. I love blogging but hate Blogger.
. . . sometimes, i find with beta you have to sign in over and over before it will accept you, but you are not beta yet, are you? yeah, blogger can be a real pain when it hijacks your efforts . . .
Nmj,
I just created a new Google account but I suspect the problem lies in my not having switched to Beta. It seems I dislike change when I don't understand exactly what I'm changing TO.
I hope this helps because I am seriously frustrated.
Thanks for your support.
Aw, you're a cat liberator! When they take over the world, you'll be spared.
What are these people thinking? That was awesome that you could give that cat even a brief reprieve from the misery of that horrible costume. I applaud you.
I've switched to beta and I've had trouble with word verification, even with the correct letters. I haven't had a problem with signing into comments, though. Have you let blogger know?
Amen!!!!!! That really gets my undressed goat!
Peace
Jay,
I hope so. I'm sure that day is soon, to judge by my cat's behavior. She has long since taken over her world.
Thank you for coming by. I love your blog.
Velvet,
After I created the google account, I was able to post a comment to someone's blog, but instead of HISF, they signed me as my email address. I can't find a way back to change anything but the password, AND it seems that if you try to cancel your Google account, ever, they take your blog down with it.
Blogger no longer has accessiblitly to a real person to help with problems. They just send you the same old links lists. I am disgusted as well as frustrated and upset. There is much gnashing of teeth going on here.
Odat,
Have you had a similar problem, then? If so, how did you fix it?
Oh totally. I hate this myself.
Although we have been known to dress up our Vizsla. But she was Wonder Woman with her own laso and things she could be proud of and not injured by.
Claudia,
You know what they say -- a picture is worth a thousand woofs.
I agree with you!!
I used to have a Yorkie. I got him right before Christmas. It was very cold that Christmas, so I bought him a sweater to keep him warm during our bout with housebreaking.
I could never find his sweater when it was time for him to go do his business. Eventually I walked in and caught him taking it from one hiding place (behind the pillows on the couch) looking frantically for a new spot.
I was SOOO tickled. He was just a baby, 12 weeks or so, but he knew what he wanted...and what he didn't want. He hated that sweater and I never put clothes on him again.
I have been having trouble leaving comments too. It made me switch to the new Blogger, which was no sweat since I have a google account. I just don't use it. Well in my first comment, it signed me as Tania, not Katrice. All settings said Katrice, so I just restarted my browser, and it seems to be working fine now. What a pain.
And I really feel for that cat. No pet deserves a butthole for a human.
Lex,
What a delightful story! Dogs are so incredibly smart.
I have another friend with a Yorkie. She caught him peeing on his little coat and got the hint.
Katrice,
Thanks for the encouragement. I wasn't able to make comments on other peoples' blogs and ended up opening the Google account. Then it used "flusy" as my display name, which is part of my e-mail address, instead of heart in sf. Now I can't comment by any name, even Anonymous.
They might as well have just pierced my gizzard with a stiletto.
I am an only child and my poor toy poodles sure bore the brunt of it. They fit into much of my doll clothing. The girl dog got so used to it, she would fall asleep on her back, in the pram, in full dress as I pushed her round the neighborhood. My current dog is no doubt relieved I grew out of that phase.
heart in san fran, there are lots of complaints about comments on google help currently, don't know if you looked there yet . . . also, i've been getting quite a few duplicate comments recently - i figure people are having to try over and over to access the comments system.
Awww, but aren't they cute?
No, really I agree with you. We
have 2 dogs & 2 cats and have never done that to them, although 1 dog does wear a sweater or raincoat when she goes out, she's a princess.
Have tried dressing up my Koi in my fishpond, but they wont play along.
PS 'm a big proponent of Beta. When I switched over months ago- had some problems, but now all fixed. As a picture blogger, loading pics with Beta is great.
Wow, the problems that you're having with Blogger are a real drag. Hopefully there's a way around this without having to scuttle your whole blog... that would be a disaster!
I switched to beta and haven't had many problems (I've actually had fewer), but it figures that there's no way to contact a human in any way... grrrrr. That's one of my pet peeves.
Good luck.
Lee,
I know a store in SF that sells very fashionable outfits for the dog that has everything, including ballet tutus, goth get-ups, S&M stuff (whips and chains and teeth, oh my) and any number of costumes that allow dogs to dress up like other animals, if you want the address.
Nmj,
Why do they have to make it so hard? When I get back from the dentist, I'll have to deal with this.
I'm looking forward to a sour day.
Polyman,
I'm not sure where I stand with regard to Beta. I haven't deliberately switched over, but was forced to open a Google account because I was unable to leave comments to most blogs. And still can't.
Formerly, most problems were solved by moving the blog into a new template, but this one is deeper, apparently.
Koi look as if they're already wearing frilly clothing.
Velvet,
I'm very angry at them for taking away the ability to communicate with a real person. And I wonder what happened to those guys... are they walking a picket line somewhere in cyberspace?
I think decorating a dog depends on the dogs. Personally, I like putting moose antlers on snarling hounds, with spittle flying from razor sharp teeth, their eyes rolling back in their heads. You see? That way we both get something out of it and Christmas cheer becomes something of an extreme sport.
Let me qualify this...the sport of Dog Decorating is no good with a little poodle or yorkie. Dog Decorating should occur only with a ninety pound rotweiller or a hundred and ten pound mastiff. Better yet...decorate dogs as a pair.
Just thinking out loud here.
Word is Blogger would like everyone to switch over to Beta so now the Beta's and the Non-beta's are having trouble talking to each other.
Stewart,
It does have potential as an extreme sport, especially dressing a Pit Bull as Titania, Queen of the Fairies. Much more sporting than hanging wreaths on the front grills of Beamers.
Lee,
You think? For months, they've been propositioning me to go Beta every time I post anything. I believe my current problem is Blogger playing hardball because I haven't gone with the program.
And I'm not savvy enough to unscrew myself.
Tagging you Doll Face.
maricopamark.blogsavy.com
Mark,
Your new blog looks great!
What are you tagging me for, exactly? And how did you know I look like a doll?
You've got balls. I like that.
Roonie,
It's a rough job, but somebody's got to do it.
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