Lucky Pooch!

I currently reside in a very nice suburban community near Boston. The town is beautiful and has wonderful schools – thus the move to the suburbs. I feel fortunate to live in such a place, but there are times that I want to grab the person in front of me and shake them! The life in towns such as mine sometimes borders on the ridiculous. I find myself wondering if my fellow suburbanites realize that most of the country, let alone the world, does NOT live the lifestyle to which we are accustomed. Sometimes they seem overly concerned about whether their brilliant child is being “challenged” enough in school to realize that kids in some parts of the world don't even have a school in their village. I realize that everything is relevant, but sometimes the concerns of the average suburbanite are absurd.

Case in point – I recently attended a social gathering where the discussion turned to dog food. Not the type you buy, but rather what type of human food you could safely give to Fido without endangering his long-term health. One woman was concerned about feeding dogs the food that we corrupt with all our seasonings, chemicals etc. She was quite adamant about this and considered feeding a dog human food the equivalent of a death sentence. A second woman was quick to point out that she cooks her dog his own steak each day to make sure that it's pure and unadulterated. Yes, she cooks her family meal and then makes Fido a steak. Others chimed in about the special, yet healthy, treats they cooked for their beloved dogs. This went on for a good 15 minutes. I wanted to laugh out loud! Were the people around me really having this discussion? At the time of this “debate” we were smack dab in the middle of an economic crisis, still knee deep in two wars and were about to inaugurate the country's first African American president – it seemed as if there might be better things to debate. Never mind that no one seemed concerned about the long-term health problems associated with feeding this corrupted food to their human family members.