Pets
If You Love Your Dog, You Should Leash It
Don’t make me tell you this to your face
I hope that you love your dog. You should.
Your dog is part of your household. You live, eat and sleep under the same roof. You spend countless hours together. You are family.
I get how adored a pet can be.
I had a rabbit who we adopted from someone who didn’t have enough time to care for it. I am forever grateful to him, for giving the bunny up. That rabbit lived for a decade, delighting us with his leaps, and his love. We sobbed when he died.
We had many fish. Some lived for several years. We cared for them deeply despite their indifference to us.
I had a few dogs as a young child, but I had one dog in my early teenage years through my young adulthood, who was the best dog ever. No other dog before, or since, will ever be as good as him.
You should feel the same way about your dog.
But I don’t know your dog, so I don’t feel that way about yours. And critically, your dog does not know me. And I love that you love your dog, but I especially love your dog when it is on a leash of reasonable length, not taking up the whole sidewalk.
