Monday, November 17, 2008

Overheard at Starbucks...

The silent barks of a small terrier. She was a rescue, and her owner said the previous one had her voice box removed. I will steer away from making an issue of the overt censorship metaphor, and just say this is so cruel. The owner apologized for the silent mouthing her dog was doing towards myself and Louie, insisting she was harmless. I told her that her dog was no bother at all. I would never pre-judge an energetic dog that I didn't know as poorly behaved. But would exercise some prejudice towards a person who found barking an inconvenient behavior of their pet.

4 comments:

Renee Thompson said...

I didn't know such a procedure was possible, and wonder why a veterinarian would ever agree to do this. It's like the guy who agreed to perform yet one more surgery on Michael Jackson. Impossible to understand.

Anonymous said...

I guess it all comes down to, "Is the glass half full, or half empty". My take is that he should have a few more. Of course I think we could both agree they never should have started.
:-)

Anonymous said...

It reminds me of the St. Bernard that lived on Avenida de Santiago. It also had it's voicebox removed. For the longest time I couldn't figure out why it barked so strangely. The fact that no one took its silent bark as a serious threat only made it bark more.

Michelle Panik said...

Barney? Was that the dog's name? I remember seeing him through that house's sideyard fence. A great big St. Bernard and a little bichon frise or something. Cute pair. Now that I think about it, Barney was pretty quiet. I'm so stupid. And the dog's situation is so sad.