Why you need me [unemployed]

Tags

Animal behavior, Dog behavior, Dog diary, pet blog, pet humour, philosophy

I’ve been reading about dog’s depressions and dogs who have Canine Compulsive Disorder which is Obsessive Compulsive disorder in humans. [1] The focus in many of these papers is drugs. How can animals be treated with drugs and how might that help humans with the same problems. They also talk about breeds that have the gene. OMG, where is the concern about animal psychopathology and environment? Are they just going to breed it out of us? Does that mean that active smart dogs like me will cease to exist because we make poor pets?
I admit to the occasional dust binge but dude (!) If Sandra and Andreas vacuumed more often… I’m just saying.

– Now let’s get serious. I want to talk about animal employment. You may think animals cannot suffer from the effects of unemployment because we don’t use a currency system. But re-think that. Anyone who is given handouts loses a sense of self-worth period. And having something to do, something to contribute to, puzzles to unravel and difficult problems to overcome is what gives us all, non-human animals included a sense of worth and meaning.

Point in case: what do I do around the house day in and day out?

I provide love and comfort

I let them use baby talk and give them a sense of caring

I take family photographs

I submit to displaying ritual human costume

I guard things, like rocks…

And i am thus affected negatively by these pseudo jobs

I become lethargic and passive

I become obsessed with my imagination. Here with laser beam eyes, I have irresponsibly taught my little sister to power up, but alas the force is weak in that one.

I have however, managed to convinced Andreas that he is Luke Skywalker and I am his evil Father. But I digress…

As I sit pondering life in my ill-fitted Padington hat, I have to say, I’m feeling a bit useless. My parents and their parents before them provided love, but they also furnished rat control, guarded livestock and provided an alarm system for the farm.  These days dogs are actually asked to not do these things. :O

So what is the meaning of my life? I need a job. That is the whole of it.

The question is how you as a human can help and I don’t know. But I know that many people love to love dogs; Which is different than loving dogs.  Believe me, getting a leash slapped on and drug down the path in lieu of an outing, is not helping with the ego.  And before you angrily hush our barking, remember, you guys used to love us for our warning systems, I think that is why you started feeding us in the first place. Go figure 🙂

[1]Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_psychopathology