A DOG’S LIFE

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 January 1928, Page 2

A DOG’S LIFE

PETTED POMS AND VAGRANTS. There is a social scale amongst dogs as well as there is amongst the humans who kick or pet them according to their temperament. It is also a well expressed truism that every dog has his day, but some live less precariously than others. There are the aristocrats of dogland —fluffy-haired “poms,” Pekingese, Sydney Silkies and Australian terriers, whose pedigrees are as big as themselves, Alsatians that dwarf them into insignificance by their bulk and look with disapproving eyes at one from luxurious motor cars, and greyhounds that have been elevated on the rung in recent times because of their value as tin hare racers —and there are the vagrants, flea-bitten, cadaverous and mangy outcasts that are buffeted from pillar to post, and have to scratch for an existence, until they are ultimately gathered in by the dog catcher and put out of their misery. The balls of fluff of the Pomeranian variety have little to do but to look perky and nice, anil sleep. They are fondled and caressed and have as much affection lavished upon them as the latest addition to the family. Delicate dishes are prepared for them regularly, and their cares in life are so few that they even have little necessity to walk, for they are usually carried from place to place under women’s arms —things of ornamentation. They look most inoffensive, but they are capable of becoming agitated and emitting sounds that distinctly resemble a bark. From the point of view of usefulness, they are a negligible quantity, but their popularity does not appear to be on the wane. On the other hand there are canine who havj? to work strenuously for their living, and earn every juicy bit of meat that comes their way. In this category come sheep and cattle dogs of the collie type, that are indispensable on the farm and to the drover. Intelligent, alert animals, they obey their master’s commands with dispatch, and a shrill whistle sends them speedily away to return a wandering sheep or a troublesome steer to the fold. They never appear to tire, and are indeed true friends of man. Here, passing reference might be made to the value of gun dogs, who live in luxury in the off-season, but are compelled to be on the job early and late, when the shooting season is at its height. But, when all is said and done, the lot of the stray, although he has little to do but to scrape around for a meal and avoid the dog collector, is the hardest of all. He is full of cunning, and, after a few days of vagrancy, knows where to find all the scrap tins that are likely to produce a dainty morsel or two, and a sheltered spot where lie can rest his weary bones and escape the rigours of winter or wet nights. The rears of restaurants make “happy hunting grounds” and it is quite possible, if alertness is preserved, to get down on a juicy bone left lying around in a butchery establishment. Canine of this description daily roam the streets of every city and in the course of a year, the authorities find it necessary to destroy many hundreds of them by means of a simple but very effective process. While occasionally a valuable animal is raked in for being abroad without the collar which usually distinguishes the outcast from the dog that is merely temporarily lost, in the majority of casesJt is the mongrel type that is destroyed. If a dog shows any semblance of breeding, it is kept by the authorities for a week in order to give its owner an opportunity of recovering it, and teaching it better manners. And so it is that, in this manner, are the streets of the city kept comparatively free from the wandering dog nuisance.