The adventure of Oscar the dog.

No this is not the childrens' storybook I wrote a few years ago, but his current adventures. Not only did he go on a 2 hour walk today, including a bus and subway ride, but he saw the vet and made an appointment for 2 tooth extractions. YUK!! If he only knew.

I don't like the idea of him going under but there is no way to reason with a dog and get them to sit still while you cut into their gums- or however it is done. He will be doped up all weekend but after the ordeal and the gourmet "soft food" we are to deliver, he should be right as rain, ready to play with much better breath. Oh his breath stinks worse than ten kilos of kimchi!

I remember reading an article about how our pets had better health care in Canada than we did, and it appalled me, but honestly, I would rather that, than to serve them in a pot, or drive screwdrivers into their bellies. There seems to be no in-between. We are either ridiculously attentive to our pets or shamefully neglectful or even abusive.

An old friend of mine used to live on Salmon Avenue. Now she had truly white-trash neighbors, but still, these people grew up HERE where animals have some sort of value, and still she tied up her poor old dog outside under the porch, winter and summer, until the poor things died out there in the cold. I called the Humane Society- all the way from Korea- but what was the use? Can't bring back the dead.

I want to do more for animals. I want to help and foster and adopt and pay for and volunteer and, and, and, but I cant afford to bring more animals home and all I can do to make myself feel less shitty is to know that I saved ONE dog- the above-mentioned Oscar- from a short life on the streets of Korea eating little and ending up under a car- or worse.

I guess I tend to get morose after 11:30pm.

Oscar is snoring contentedly. Why am I not doing the same? Sometimes we have to learn from our dogs.