CSotD: Must Be National Dog Park Day
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Perhaps everyone was anticipating Spring, but today spawned three pretty good dog park cartoons. Or, rather, two pretty good dog park cartoons and this Overboard, which is more of a "We need a dog park" cartoon:
Our dog park was wiped out in August by the same hurricane and flood that, but for some late night heroics, would have taken out the Schulz Library at the Center for Cartoon Studies.
The dog park was not just "flooded," but had its chain-link fences ripped down, a foot of sludge deposited throughout and its sign later found several miles down river.
There is hope that the park will be restored by sometime this summer, thanks to volunteers, FEMA and some serious arm-twisting (sorry, I meant "fundraising") among vendors on the part of our local feed store and pet emporium.
In the mean time, we've found a park on the banks of the Connecticut River where the dogs can chase balls and each other. It's in the same town as the dog park and there is a bag station for those who forget to bring their own.
And, while we don't have a lot of "no dog" areas in this civilized part of the world, Hartford is more welcoming than my own town of Lebanon, which still has some of these stupid signs up. As they age, they are being replaced by less hysterical signs simply asking owners to scoop and reminding them that it is the law.
I realize that there are people who are phobic about dogs and there are people who are phobic about poop and there are people who are phobic about having to share their planet at all, and it's only the latter group I have no patience for.
There are people who are phobic about flying in airplanes, but I've never heard of anyone going to city council asking that the airport be closed and airplanes be banned from flying overhead lest they fall and crush us all. I think people who are afraid of flying know that it's simply a phobia and not a divine revelation and call to crusade.
As a dog owner, I get furious with people who don't scoop because they provide ammunition for the people who are convinced that it's time to call a halt to this crazy experiment of humans and dogs living together because, after 30,000 years, we have finally figured out that it's a bad idea.
Besides, there might be fewer humans on the planet if owning a dog weren't one way to promote the necessary interactions:
Yes, it takes some time to get used to the art in "Reply All." But Donna Lewis is funny enough to provide a lesson in how good writing can save bad art. I think her character, Lizzie, is Cathy's daughter. They have the same nose. Lizzie is funnier, however.
The joke here is that these two people know each other's names. Nobody knows any people's names at the dog park. It's like nursery school, where you identify yourself by your kid's name, and so you have Kaitlin's father getting in touch with Jacob's mother about a birthday party.
It's even more like that now that people give their dogs human names while saving dog names for their children. We don't have any "Brandys" at the dog park, but you have to specify which "Nelly" you are talking about. And, yes, we talk about Maia's mom and about Tanner's dad.
As for the last line in that cartoon, having a still-young and very athletic dog, I'm down there twice a day, and Vaska has a lot of friends among dogs whose owners are equally devoted to them. You're going to have to decide for yourself if that's really a good thing.
I've never been convinced of the whole dog-as-chick-magnet thing, but certainly the dog park is a place where you can meet people who will probably care more about their dogs than about you.
Though, if that's what you're really looking for, Strange Brew may be offering an even better alternative:
Finally, here's a song written in memory of Carl Wilson's dog. It was a big hit, which brings to mind the joke about how the most popular topics for magazine stories were medicine, Abraham Lincoln, motherhood and dogs, so that the ultimate cover story would be "Abraham Lincoln's Mother's Doctor's Dog."
Yes, I might have chosen "Martha," the song from the White Album about Paul McCartney's dog. But it doesn't really capture the whole obsession thing. Paul obviously didn't spend enough time in the dog park.
You Earworm of the Day:
(CSOTD recognizes its obligation to present responsible opposing viewpoints. Here is Kasey Casem with a NSFW commentary on a long-distance dedication of "Shannon" following an up-tempo song. Did we say "NSFW"? N even slightly SFW.)
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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