The Stray Dog

The dog is very much a stray,
      Headed up the street on his way,
He's in search of food to eat,
      so he doesn't seem to miss a beat.

He passes one house and more,
     this trip he's made times before,
So independent he certainly is,
     this life though he'd change as his.

His future would not be so dim,
     if someone would merely take him,
Love and attention he'd definitely gain,
     if finally a master he could obtain.

The life of this stray is a sad one,
     in deserving it what has he done?
As a puppy, he was deeply adored,
     but cast out when owner got bored.

He's a stray making best of what he can,
     for him; he's in need of our helping hand,
by giving a morsel of food; we share,
     showing one of God's creatures we care.

Living Together

I grew up on a farm.  We had both cats and dogs.  Somewhere I had heard dogs and cats did not get along.  But ours always did.  Each left the other one alone.  They simply went about his/her business.  From the start, they grew up together.

Over the years, I had one cat killed by stray dogs.  It was my son’s birthday and friends were coming over.  Tina, our cat, would surely wind up in the cake.  It meant putting her outside.  I thought nothing about it as she was an indoor and outdoor cat.  But during that brief time, even before guests started arriving, stray dogs in a pack attacked and killed Tina on my front porch.  I felt so guilty about that.

Later a cat, both indoor and outdoor, was attacked by dogs.  Tiger lived after several visits to the Vet.  He became an indoor cat.  What makes some dogs attackers and others not?  I guess it may well depend on how they are raised?  This statement sounds familiar in my human thinking.  I don’t confess to being a person of animal behavior.  I just gather my information from own experience.

Since I have two blogs, one for cats and the other dogs, I could place this piece on either blog.  I am placing it under my dog stories.  And the next paragraph will explain.

My house sits atop a hill.  There are streets below this hill from the back.  As I have a fenced back yard, the neighbors below me have fenced back yards too.  In one such back yard, dogs are allowed to run.  In my back yard adjourning it, cats are allowed to run.  Since cats are strays, there’s not much containment of them.  They have been known to wind up in others yards.  And so it happened, a cat in the back yard of the lady with the dogs.  These dogs apparently had not been around cats that often.  And the neighbor was to teach them how to deal with cats.

My son was in our back yard when the neighbor came out to check on her barking dogs.  She noticed instantly what had brought on the commotion.  She never tried stopping the barking.  Instead, she provoked it as she yelled, “Get the kitty!”  Not once, but several times non-stop she yelled, “Get the kitty!”  She did not care at all who heard her.

It upset my son, who is both a dog and cat lover.  He says, “I can’t harm any animal.”  And so; this something of him I am proud.  But he admits for that moment he wanted to yell back, “Get the doggie!”  But he didn’t!

A cat is an independent animal.  It will choose its master.  Teaching it tricks is like almost impossible.  But a dog can be taught tricks.  The neighbor was teaching her dog to chase cats.  A friend recently said he had a dog and they got a cat.  They could not get along.  But he taught the dog to love that cat.  He never said how he did it.  But dogs learn from its master.  The neighbor was teaching her dog to hate cats.  If I could teach a stray cat something, it would be, “Stay out of that neighbor’s yard.”  Hopefully though, they have learned this one on their own.