{"id":361,"date":"2009-10-01T22:29:47","date_gmt":"2009-10-02T02:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.josephclan.com\/tjblog\/?p=361"},"modified":"2009-10-03T22:06:20","modified_gmt":"2009-10-04T02:06:20","slug":"a-dog-is-a-mans-best-friend-but","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.josephclan.com\/tjblog\/?p=361","title":{"rendered":"A dog is a man’s best friend but…….."},"content":{"rendered":"

Max is our 2 1\/2 year old German Shepherd dog – we have had him since he was a puppy. We also have Kaya – another GSD. Kaya belongs to Richard & Saira but we have been taking care of her since May when we returned from our sojourn in India & Asia. We have, what Saira describes as, a “joint custody arrangement” since for about four months of the year Max & Kaya reside with them while we are out of the country and when we return to the US, we assume “custody” unless we are out of town town. We try and keep them together because we feel that it would be cruel to separate them.<\/p>\n

I have always liked animals – after all, I wanted to be a vet when I was a child. Dogs are for me the ultimate embodiment of an animal that provides unconditional love and loyalty. Dogs are almost universally loved in the West. I remember when I first went to England from Kenya I felt that, at times, the average Britisher seemed more concerned about animals, and dogs in particular, than their fellow-humans.
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\nThe one group of people who seem indifferent to dogs to the point of actually disliking dogs, are Indians. Now this is a bit of a sweeping generalization but among the Indians I know ranging from most of my siblings to other relatives, friends and acquaintances, the attitude ranges from reluctantly tolerating dogs to wanting to have nothing to do with them. This is reflected in the fact that very few first generation Indian families in the US keep a dog as a pet, though it seems to be changing with the second generation. I find this aspect of how the average Indian reacts to dogs and other pets to be puzzling – after all, it was Gandhi who said \u201cthe greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated\u201d. But go to any city in India and the condition of dogs and cats is pathetic to the point of being outright tragic.<\/p>\n

I would be the first to concede that I probably go overboard when it comes to my dogs – after all, how many people go to the trouble of preparing food for their dogs at home to make sure that they get “wholesome” food as opposed to commercial dog food that is known to contain the most undesirable by-products of animals including diseased animals. But even leaving aside my own idiosyncrasy when it comes to dogs and their care, the almost universal dislike with which most Indians seem to view dogs and other pets is a mystery to me. <\/p>\n

When I look at my dogs I am reminded of the following quote: <\/p>\n

“He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Here are a couple of pictures of the dogs including one with Deepali.<\/p>\n

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Max<\/center><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Kaya with Deepali<\/center><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Max is our 2 1\/2 year old German Shepherd dog – we have had him since he was a puppy. We also have Kaya – another GSD. Kaya belongs to Richard & Saira but we have been taking care of her since May when we returned from our sojourn in India & Asia. We have, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josephclan.com\/tjblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josephclan.com\/tjblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josephclan.com\/tjblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josephclan.com\/tjblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josephclan.com\/tjblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.josephclan.com\/tjblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":380,"href":"https:\/\/www.josephclan.com\/tjblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions\/380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josephclan.com\/tjblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josephclan.com\/tjblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josephclan.com\/tjblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}