After many attempts to ask my parents for a dog as a kid, I remember resorting to pretending to be one. My oldest sister also liked my idea because she was the trainer that commanded me. However, my role as a dog started to be problematic when I chose to be a biting dog. My sisters and friends decided to give me the nickname of perro Chihuahueño*, which I translated to mutt. I find it strange that at the age of six, I was offended by not being seen as an imaginary purebred dog. I wanted to be Lassie!
Dogs are on my mind lately because they are the one animal that is considered part of a family, lives with us in the house, and humans breed them for certain traits. For example, the movie Best in Show is a parody to the culture of dog shows. However, the movie doesn’t go too deep into what is that makes a dog win best of show or the breeding opportunities from winning. The terrier that wins isn’t necessarily the most spectacular dog in terms of physical, but it is the dog that seemed the most obedient and loyal. On Chapter V of the novel Beautiful Joe, there is a line where they describe a dog as a good dog because “he is patient, quite, and obedient.”
Recently on CNN they made a segment on a guy who photographs his dog with food on his head. This animal stories and others seen on the segment are told because we are surprised by the well-behaved animal. To watch the video click here.
*Until writing this post I believed a perro Chihuahueño translated to a mutt. My sister thought it was a made up name. However, according to wikipedia, a Chihuahueño dog is the Spanish name for Chihuahua... I was a purebred after all ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment