Comments on: Taking Charge, Devil Dog, etc.

By: GravelPit

GravelPit — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 03:55:42 +0000

On a darker note: These dogs are being abused-What with the cold that arrives each evening there. Call Stray Hearts, and say that I said to call. Someone’s gonna get hurt.It may be the animals, it may be you or your wife; but these dogs are being abused and a chain around the neck is NOT a humane way of dealing wit it.
We had a dog last winter, frozen to the ground. When we attempted to lift him (with plenty of warm water and a pry-bar), he broke in half. NOT a pretty sight.
The owner claimed he was “Buhddist” and it’s just “the cycle” of life. Maybe someone should have squirted HIM with a hose and left him to the elements. See how HIS cycle played out… I’m sure that the Buhddah would understand.
It’s a wonderful place to live but there’s some real fucked up attitudes there. Drop down the shelter some morning and see. Goddam it, now you’ve got me started.
PS-Just spent a few days down Taos way… Other than some dirty shoes, it was gorgeous as usual.

By: K.J. Webb

K.J. Webb — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:42:52 +0000

Your pen is always sharp on the subject of mud, John. Add dogs and you become one eloquent son of a bitch. This thing about dogs and newspapers…. The bastards used to run after me in the old days of the paper route. I loved whacking them smartly about the muzzle with a rolled-up “Reporter-News” as they lept for me on my bicycle or motor scooter. My father - a mail carrier - always had a strap ready to administer judgment as he went his appointed rounds. It was an early lesson in the meaning of law. It ain’t law if it can’t be - or won’t be - enforced by the state. Self-help - vigilantism, I guess you could call it - has to fill the breech when the stuff on the books doesn’t translate to the peons in the trenches. Bemoan it if you will, but that’s how life works on terra firma.

I have these arguments with a high-minded friend of mine. He says that law is what’s written down and what we ought to live by. Nope, I say, you’re deluding yourself if you think it’s anything other than what the secular powers - the police and the courts - are able or willing to enforce. I learned that at 5:30 A.M. on innumerable mornings spent battling canines with the weapons at my disposal.

By: John H. Farr

John H. Farr — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:48:11 +0000

What feels good is a sense that things are shifting. It’s more than just the new car.

And thank you!

By: John K

John K — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:45:48 +0000

That story literally made me laugh. One of your best.

You’re in a good mood.