The Owner leads me past a pair of rats with bushy tails and I chase them into a tree where they sit, looking down at me, holding their breakfast in their paws.
They are squirrels, she says. Aren’t they sweet.
Sweet.
Sweet?
It’s a rat with a bushy tail and it just stole pizza from the bin. How is it sweet?
The Owner says that it has a nice little face and a fluffy tail, and it has this really sweet way of holding food in two paws and nibbling on it like a worried little person.
This is anthropomorphism. The last time I took pizza from the bin I wasn’t sweet, I was a Bad Dog. Other Animals should not try to leap the Moral Pecking Order through cynical imitation and pretended cuteness.
Later, Caspar and I resolve that the next task for Superdog and his Faithful Sidekick will be to clear the park of this riff raff. This makes me feel much better until I see a passing elderly lady bend to ruffle Caspar’s fluff.
He’s so fluffy, she tells Caspar’s Owner. He’s so sweet.
Et tu Brute?
Categories: dog dog philosophy philosophy squirrels
Hergest the Hound
I am a dog of many thoughts.
Leave a Reply