Monday, January 12, 2009

Dogs and Coats

The temperature here is rapidly dropping tonight and a damp haze is settling in.

Driving home, as I turned onto my street I passed a boy walking his dog.

The boy was wearing a winter parka with the strings of the hood pulled so tight that only his eyes and nose were visible deep in the fur trimmed covering.

A boy after my own heart, I thought.

Then I did a double take - the dog had no fur. The dog was not much larger than a cat so from the quick look I got, I could not tell if the canine was a hairless breed or it had recently been subjected to the attentions of a groomer.

Regardless, that dog needed a coat!

No wonder the dog was obviously straining at its leash. Doubtless the poor animal was shivering uncontrollably while his owner basked in recirculated body heat. The bulging eyes I had noticed on the dog's face probably did not normally bulge at all. The protruding eyeballs were probably the result of the facial skin having contracted in the cold.

I was tempted to turn around and berate the boy - but that would have meant lowering the window of my car and getting cold.

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