No one owns a dog

Nipper in the RCA Victor logo tilted his head at the sound coming from the Victrola, adopted from a painting with the title, “His Master’s Voice.” The little dog was drawn to the sound because it was …

We have talked of dogs’ masters and pet owners, but can a person truly own a dog, any more than they they can own a man or a woman? There’s something eerily wrong about the statement, “You’re mine,” just as there’s something wonderfully right about the statement, “I am yours.”

A living creature cannot be possessed; the sharing and the caring should be voluntary and mutual.

I put my heart in the care of a gentle golden retriever, and she put her trust and care in me. She was “mine” only in the sense that we had assumed responsibility for her well-being. I don’t think I ever thought of her as a thing I possessed. You don’t own another soul, certainly not a soul as big as hers.

Published by WarrenBluhm

Wordsmith and podcaster, Warren is a reporter, editor and storyteller who lives near the shores of Green Bay with his wife, two golden retrievers, Dejah and Summer, and Blackberry, an insistent cat. Author of It's Going to Be All Right, Echoes of Freedom Past, Full, Refuse to be Afraid, Gladness is Infectious, 24 flashes, How to Play a Blue Guitar, Myke Phoenix: The Complete Novelettes, A Bridge at Crossroads, The Imaginary Bomb, A Scream of Consciousness, and The Imaginary Revolution.

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