I DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU

You know the old human adage, “Walk a mile in my shoes”? There’s something to be said for doing so. Case in point, a senior aged neighbor was appalled when she heard her grand-children being impatient and rude to her elderly friends who were helping to set up a community garage sale. It upset her so much that she forced her grandchildren to spend the rest of the day wearing sunglasses with Vaseline smeared on the lenses, to wear a painfully tight brace on one leg to eliminate their ability to bend one knee and to put earplugs in their ears. They had to do their homework with the glasses on, clean out her attic (which required going up and down stairs with a knee in a brace) and run her garage sale with limited hearing as they interacted with buyers. After a day of this torture, the kids not only treated their grandparents better, they treated all seniors better. It occurred to me that it might benefit adult humans to experience something similar in order to understand what it’s like to be an abandoned dog or cat.

I double dog dare my human readers (yes, I have cat and canine readers too) to spend one day on the street living the life of an abandoned animal.  – Walking a mile in our paws, so to speak. This means, no coat to keep you warm (just one set of clothes), no food unless you can beg another human to give it to you or dig it out of the trash. (No talking or writing signs for help.) You are not allowed inside buildings and will have to rest on the cold ground; water will have to be obtained from the gutter when you can find it at all. And when you are unspeakably exhausted and hungry, you must dodge traffic, ill treatment from other humans, the pain of injuries and illness that will not be tended to, all while dodging the canine cops. If you do this, I’ll bet my next bone you would treat all animals better. Further, I bet you’ll get involved in helping save the nearly 6-plus million animals entering shelters in the US streets every year. (Source: Humane Society US)

Find a quiet place. Take 10 full minutes of private time. (Set an alarm if you like.) Close your eyes. Imagine a full day in the life of an abandoned animal. Pick a noisy, busy city street to start off your journey or an abandoned field in a rough area of your town.  Start walking.  Paw step by paw step, imagine this life. – The life that was mine.

Here’s my lesson of the week: take my dare. Afterwards, email info@creaturecauses.com and request a copy of Creature Causes eZine. Read it. Select one project that serves the needs of abandoned animals and contribute to it in some way every year (funds, time, supplies) for the rest of your life. And then, dare another human to do the same thing.