alex.

[beastieangel01]

so, I know this may be a bit strange but I wanted to share this for some reason. It's still bothering me. I already did the quick 2 minute sketch days ago and when I needed to write things down I just grabbed the sketch since it was the closest thing to me last night. It's long so if no one reads it that's fine, like I said, I just wanted to share.

http://static.flickr.com/60/194028108_b0d9398efb.jpg



-------------------------------------------------------------------------
A small dog showed up at my parent’s house a few days ago. Dirty and friendly, it would just continue to stay. We wondered if it was someone else’s dog. My Dad was unwilling to put money in to placing lost dog ads but wanted to go to the point at least to write in the folder they have for lost dog notifications. My Mother gave the dog a bath, put flea medicine on him, fed him, and gave him water. My brother gave him a name. First it was Lucky, then Otie, and finally he settled on "Alex." Alex was barking at passer-bys, as if he now lived with us. I suppose we were treating him as such. I came home once and Alex barked at me until I said "HEY! I live here!" and he recognized me. He welcomed me home today by sitting on my lap and lapping at me constantly. I tried to help introduce him to our other two, much larger, male dogs. At first they sniffed and wagged their tails. Then the little one started to bark at the large two. I tried to get everyone’s smell on each other to show that it was okay. I even scolded al of them, including holding Alex and his snout closed, telling him (and the other two) to be NICE! My Mom told me that her and my Dad tried again in the backyard. Same thing happened that time: tails wag then the barking. I even remember saying "if he keeps barking at them like this as if this is his place they WILL KILL HIM." Looks like tonight he pushed his luck. I woke up from a dream (that I now cannot remember) to unrecognizable sounds of the small one, Alex, dying. My two larger male dogs either bit him to death, or just bit and suffocated, I'm not sure which. My Mom woke up and reacted quicker than I could. She was too late. When she got the other two our of the way, Alex let out one last yelp and laid still. She tied up the other two to the fence, unable to look at them. HE covered Alex with a towel, upset. Before she could tell me I knew exactly what happened to poor Alex. I reminded her that our dogs are just that, dogs. They are animals, territorial, and they are capable of being vicious.

There is something about this though that is hitting me hard and I cannot quite make it out yet. A small dog - pushing it's limits with two much larger dogs that have already established their territory - gets killed by those two dogs. Animals. Territorial. Vicious. There's no "is this right or wrong" before they killed him. It's instinct. Perhaps in a lot of ways it just makes me sick and even more disappointed in us. Mankind. We essentially ARE animals. We are territorial and very capable of being vicious. But we have the ability to STOP, think, and consider "is this right or wrong?" We can CONSIDER what we are doing or are going to do! We don't HAVE to allow our instinct to take over. But sometimes, a lot of the time, we choose to let it happen. And even that makes me wonder, considering other animals of this earth, is it really necessary or even useful to have this power of choice? Is it, or could it, hinder more than help? Could we be just "reject" animals?

I would like to think that our power of choice HELPS, not hinders. And I would like to think that we're NOT JUST animals. That we don't just get the instinct to kill strangers in our territory, or move in to others to try and challenge them and perhaps claim it as our own. But then look at history: that's what we do. We do it constantly and most of us don't stop and think about it being right or wrong. We are passionate or blinded by greed, or the need for revenge, and so we rush in blindly and the damage is casualties. The loss of life. Is this our way of helping the balance? I'm not sure. Are we JUST animals after all? And if that is the case, what good is this "free will"? What does it matter? And why do we have it?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

This morning I found out that Alex is in fact alive. Limping, but alive. We brought him to the front of the house, trying to get his to drink some water. He then left, unwilling to come back to us when we called him. My Mom went after him but he would just run further and further away.

I wonder if he will come back.

[Waus]

That's sad.


My grandpa got pissed when his neighbor's dogs wouldn't shut up. He bought a little high frequency sound emitter that made their ears hurt when they barked and attached it to the fence.

Maybe you could get one of those to make Alex shut up and get along?

[beastieangel01]

I went on a ton of tangents. Thanks for looking.

If Alex comes back, that may be a good idea. :(

[cookiepuss]

this almost made me cry. because I am terrified that my little dog will get eaten by big dogs. terrified.

[beastieangel01]

yeah like I said, dogs can be vicious. It's sad. Is your dog an indoor or outdoor dog?

[Waus]

I didn't grow up with any pets (we travelled) - you can tell when someone never had a dog as a kid when they encounter peoples pets. I'm slowly getting over not understanding what to do when a dog jumps on me.

I was at a friend's house the other day (actually, the guy who filmed Miles) and he's got a new dog that kept trying to nip at my face on the couch. I grabbed it by the head and just forced it down. My patience level with dogs is pretty low.

[beastieangel01]

I've had a dog since I was 6. Always outdoor pets though, Dad hates animals in the house. To be honest, I've never been a big "animal person." It was just something about the viciousness that really upset me I guess. And it got me thinking about how vicious all animals are capable of being, us included.

[cookiepuss]

yeah like I said, dogs can be vicious. It's sad. Is your dog an indoor or outdoor dog?

indoor. and he's so tiny that usually there is not a dominance problem with hims and big dogs. he does not try to stand up to big dogs in anyway. but we have been attacked by larger dogs just walking him down the street. So you just don't know how other dogs are going to react. I litterlly snached him away frm the jaws of a dog and if I had been two seconds later the dog would have locked on to him and probably hurt him real bad or even killed him.
he only weight 5 pounds so it wouldn't take much to destroy him.

[drizl]

wow....who's the woman in the sketch? i like this, it reminded me of those penny skits from peewees playhouse where she just rambles about things. i think its cool you did this, and i am glad you shared:)
as for what you are trying to make of it, i have some insights id like to add. i have thought a lot about our place in the universe, our role as human beings, how we have seemingly become seperated and are pushing the limits of our seperation, our confusion, our illusions.
i think that what you mentioned about being able to stop and think about what we are doing, and how that might make us different from animals. i feel much the same, that it is our ability to observe, reflect and learn that goes into our decision making, which is the foundation of action and interaction with the world. as you go further up the evolutionary ladder, you see more and more sophistication and more and more creative potential; from the bacteria and single celled organisms, to fish, monkeys and humans.

what i find most important is that we are creators, we can use our bodies, our minds and our intellects to solve problems and deal with survival and little things like love. i believe that life on earth evolves to grow with mroe capacities, towards greater levels of intelligence and then on to creative capacities which hold greater responsibilities. the sun and the earth and moon are living beings, they are of conscious matter, and they have greater responsibilities towards the birth, maintenance and death of life, of the evolution of creative potential.

love. love is pure creative energy directed towards something or person. one cannot be creative and not love what they are creating, and creation is just the same, an act of love. love is our greatest human potential, and the gateway towards higher realms of creativity, of consciousness....

i think our complacency is a result of our seperation of nature, propagated by government and some sects of religions. the beleive that we are above nature, above other forms of life, that we are right now, the most evolved lifeform in the universe. that seperation confuses the fact that we are nature, that we are lebonese, that we are jewish that we are muslim, christian, terrorist and patriot. we are all one and the same, created and creator, on the brink of becoming angels.

our power of choice is no more than a capacity. its an ability to choose higher paths and live life more consciously. its a capacity to evolve. in this age of humanity, few of us are truly connected to the earth, to gaia, to the universal consciousness that is all things. few of us choose to live moment to moment, completely aware and alive. most often, our capacities are directed towards selfish matters and ego gratification.

and i think most importantly, as we are approaching global climate change/collapse, and heightened states of political tension which are arising, and will arise, humanity will have an opportunity to utilize our collective capacity to thwart off suicide and destruction, and indeed, save life on this planet. i think that the seeds will be planted by these last few generations and will germinate into a collective consciousness geared towards cooperation vs. competition, towards communication over isolation, towards love vs hate, towards beings creators and directly participating in the evolutionary dance that is life in the universe.

thanks for sharing your story about alex, i hope hes alright

[mickill]

That was great. Nicely written. I thought it was a short story or something.

I'm sorry he ran away, though.

We adopted an annoying little Maltese bitch a couple of years ago. My mom kept hinting at how much she would love to have her. So we ended up giving it to her. It's really worked out for everybody. But they/we never bothered introducing it to their pitbull/rottweiler cross in the backyard.

[beastieangel01]

our power of choice is no more than a capacity. its an ability to choose higher paths and live life more consciously. its a capacity to evolve.

(y) thanks drizl for sharing your thoughts :)

and thanks, mickill. I too am sad he ran away. Not introducing dogs to each other is a big problem, or could be. Even in those few days with Alex AND introducing them to each other they all got extremely territorial.

Anyways thanks folks for reading. Sometimes I go a little nuts at 1am in the morning :o

[enree erzweglle]

I think that's beautiful and I love that it made you think around, think in tangents.

I also like the way you turned those thoughts into a visual, merging the sketch against the backdrop of your story.

[enree erzweglle]

Anyways thanks folks for reading. Sometimes I go a little nuts at 1am in the morning :oThat's usually when the most creative, off-topic, & interesting ideas come to me. Has something to do with awareness or semi-awarness that's related to sleep. Maybe I let go then more. I don't know, but it's nearly like a drug.

I've worked with that a few times and it's always been interesting at the time though sometimes a little bizarre the next day. :o

[mikizee]

poor little dog. i hope he's ok.

i'm sad now.