The only point you can take from this is that obviously every living creature is demonspawn. Whaaaaaaaaaaa! Woof!

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I can agree with that!

WHAAAAAAARRRGHHH!!!

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For the record, I think that even though MA is a strict liability state for dog attacks on people, if runty dog chick was violating leash law, and he lost control of his leashed dog to eet little dog, he'd be somewhat liable, but she'd have a huge chunk of contributory negligence to reduce any damages awarded.

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I agree... they are both screwed. :)

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Get a cat. Meow!

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heck yes! or a little dog that you can carry around.

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I tried teaching Abbie and Martha how to go outside with a kitty harness on when they were wee kittens. They fought like mad when I put the harness on, and they fought like mad when I tried to take the harness off, so I decided maybe they weren't going to enjoy wearing a harness and abandoned the project. Besides, all Abbie did when I took him outside was eat dirt.

I wonder what would've happened if I'd been more persistent in my training and they'd been more amenable to the harnessing. I could walk the 20-pound cat around like a little dog!

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I tried that on Lenore, my first ever kitty and all she did was go out and tangle herself and me all up with the leash through bushes, over walls, around fences...

No cat in history has ever walked a completely straight line.

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Bosco loves going out for salad in his harness and leash.

(The above is not Bosco, but his sister, Pippa, who has mixed feelings about The Great Outdoors.)

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Pippa looks just like my Dottie. Does she have dots on her paws also?

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That 20-pound cat is twice the size of a little dog!

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I'm a childless dog owner but I'll vote for dog's being easier. They're generally tough for the first year or two, but after that, no back talk, no college to pay for and no drug and sex lectures to give.

That said, nothing annoys me more than people who let their dogs off leash in on-leash areas. Boston is notoriously short on off-leash areas but it still doesn't make it right to let your dog roam free. Leashed dogs often feel threatened when approached by an unleashed dog and that causes huge problems.

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I don't think any dog who can't sit and stay reliably on voice command should be allowed off leash. That's for its own safety, because even a chihuahua can streak off into the street faster than its owner can grab it.

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you're right, the big dog owner was correct. if she actually cared about her dog as more than just a toy put on earth for her amusement, she'd obviously have it leashed. even if the large dog is extremely tolerant, small dogs are obviously outsized and will often be aggressive just because they're smaller (my parent's dog does this to our poor well-behaved hound). and even if the dog can sit and stay, if it is panicking, it's going to ignore the owner and run into the street and get squashed. and then she'll probably blame someone else for it.

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Not to mention the fact if the big dog does get violent and kills the little dog, it becomes a death sentence for that big dog and a fine for the owner. Regardless of whether the little dog was leashed, I believe.

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see, that would just depress me. you can't win with the public!

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I wonder what people would say if you had a kid and a dog and both began behaving like hooligans.

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Feed one to the other, as appropriate for relative size?

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Y'know, based on that whole (first) scenario, I figured the woman meant that kids are easier than men. ;)

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