Ranger!

(Photo is exclusive Face Journal-Picayune content)

4 year old German Shepard, lives in NH, drinks from the toilet when parents arent looking, was bred by the Hells Angels in Quebec. When not barking at deer, squirrels, birds, and the reflection of aluminum foil on the ceiling, he can be found eating carrots and sleeping in the breezeway.

Ranger is the perfect example of the American dog. Most dogs in America have pretty good lives and are at times treated as siblings, children, and masters. Good article was run last Sunday in the NYTimes Magazine by Charles Siebert, detailing a week at a dog pound (colloquially) in Austin. It talked about how psychological profiling is now used as a tool in deciding which dogs are suitable for adoption...including using mock situations in a trailer to see how dogs react. The tough part though is that the longer a dog stays in an environment like a shelter, the more they will act anti-socially or even dangerously. But worse than that, the cards are stacked against most dogs to begin with. Many pure-bred dogs are built for work of some kind - from hunting to mushing to what my own puppy does: herding. So dogs misbehave when these instincts are not give a chance to be exercised.

Which is why I always love going back home to play with him. He loves to run and chase the soccer and tennis balls, and then not give them up and then wrestle for them. And he seems happier after it, like the tongue out panting is a smile.

As much as I miss having a dog, I knew theres now way I could own one now. 1) I have a closet of an apartment in Cambridge 2) I am routinely gone from 8 am to midnight 3) I do a pretty crappy job of taking care of myself, let alone an animal.

Note: I wish I could link to newspaper articles, but it seems bogus that they restrict access after only a week. Just have to credit the authors and hope no one sues me.... wait, its the internet, and maybe 10 people will read this, and there are picture of women doing unmentionable/unnatural things with Diet Coke and Mentos on the internet.

Coming up, Zero Impact and Bourgeois Environmentalism