"MUST LOVE DOGS"

It's amazing how much compassion I feel for dogs. I can't figure out whether I'm too weird or too sweet to feel that way.

I remember this one class day during my junior year in high school. Our English teacher separated the class into small groups so that we could discuss the Jack London book, "Into the Wild". We were given a set of questions that could help us facilitate a healthy discussion of the book. One of the questions asked was, "If you and your dog were stuck in a snowy mountain, with no heating devices of any kind that could warm you up, what would you do in order to keep yourself warm enough to survive? Would you kill your dog, and make a blanket out of its skin, or would you just sit there and just freeze to death?".

I chose to freeze to death.

Of course, everyone in my group, including our teacher who was listening to our discussion, acted all surprise. Their faces were saying "wow, this girl's stupid". The teacher said to me, "Wouldn't you rather live and let the dog die? Wouldn't you rather live so that you could still see your family?". I just smiled awkwardly and just said, "well, that's just me, I could never see myself killing a dog".

It's funny because before I move here in Seattle, I couldn't care less about any breed of dogs. I just saw them as "things" that eat, sleep, growl, and play. I despised the dogs that we owned back home because of how selfish they are for not sharing food with each other. There was also a point wherein I abused a dog just because he didn't share his food with our other dogs.

It's funny how things change. It's funny now that I can't stand people who leave their dogs in their cars. It's funny now that I can't stand people who abuse their dogs. It's funny know that I think of dogs as humans.

I heard him *burp* this afternoon. ECK.
I love it when dogs tilt their heads to the side. You know, the way that we tilt ours when we're looking at something that we can't figure out.
I love that no matter how old a dog is, they're still there to listen to you, to bug you when they want you to pet them, and to just sit with you when you're sitting all alone by yourself.