164 Million Reminders

I keep coming back to the simplicity of it all.

A dog sitting in front of you, looking up at you, happily and with love, wagging his tail energetically. Willing to follow any command to please you. Sit, stay, roll over.

A cat that rubs up against your legs and closes her eyes in contentment when you pick her up. A cat that sleeps in your lap and next to you in bed.

Strip away the awareness of death, strip away the distractions of responsibility, strip away the unpredictability of relationships and you get down to love.

Love is life and our pets tell us this every day.

There is a sleazy restaurant next door to The Asylum. This place is scumsville and has a reputation for being directly involved in the local drug trade. A few weeks ago the owner got dragged away in cuffs. They shut down unpredictably and re-open just as randomly. Over and over again.

I wouldn't eat there if the food was free.

There is a character that hangs there. An old dude. Grizzled, missing teeth. He comes into The Asylum occasionally to buy scratch tickets. Never booze. He drives a beat up old station wagon, ass end low to the ground, out of which he operates a locksmith business.

I don't understand how this works, I don't understand how it is even legal. He shows up in the parking lot every day, parks his car and does business out of the vehicle.

I don't even know if he lives anywhere. He is there on my early 7:00 a.m. days, he is there when I leave at 9:30 at night.

He spends a lot of time hanging in the restaurant. Knows the owner and the hangers on well. He is decades older than any of them.

Old Dude has a dog that is always with him. Small, yellow, old dog, always dirty and with a nasty growth over one eye. The guy used to keep him roped up to the car. Long rope so the dog could roam. Bowl of water close by. Until somebody complained to the police that it was dangerous for the dog because of all the traffic in the parking lot.

Now it seems like he keeps the dog in the car. Or maybe in the restaurant. I don't see him out all the time but I do see him around.

This summer when it was one of those 1,000 degree days I went out back of The Asylum to dump trash in the dumpster and Old Dude's car was parked there with his dog lying next to it. I was offput because the dog wouldn't respond to me. I have a high success rate with animals and children. When they don't let me in, it disturbs me.

I went to the back door of the restaurant and yelled through the screen door to get the attention of one of the sleazeballs who works there. I asked if anybody was keeping an eye on the dog; it was hot as hell and he might need a break. Sleazeball told me, yeah, the dog belongs to Old Dude who is inside watching racing. He said they were on top of it.

I brought out bowls of cold water three times that afternoon and checked up on the dog just in case.

I have seen Old Dude feed the dog, I have seen the dog bark to get back into the car.

I have seen the dog respond lovingly to whatever attention he gets from Old Dude.

This dog's life breaks my heart.

Even this dog with his life as tough as it is, with his owner being as sleazy as he is, even this dog knows that it is all about love.

He wags his tail, he is patient, and he takes whatever love he can get.

He is not mean, he is not loud, he does not whine - he waits.

2012 statistics estimate 164 million dogs and cats in homes in this country.

That is an enormous amount of pure love permeating our existence.

We adopt pets exactly because of their sweet, simple, perfect understanding of love and the happiness that brings us.

But we cannot evolve to the point where we can learn from it.

When your pet looks up lovingly into your eyes, know that part of what is in that look is pity for our venal stupidity.

But there is also hope and trust and love.

That is what makes a pet a pet.