Sunday, February 12, 2012

Dogs

I can't decide if the video below is hilarious or horrible. Waiting on the beach in Ko Lipe for a ferry, we saw this dog in the sand. It lives on the beach, hobbling between the bars, looking for scraps and love. I don't know what's wrong with it, but it's pretty clear that it can't use its back legs. Maybe his hips were stomped on as a puppy, or maybe something went wrong when she gave birth.

Whatever the case, that motion is absurd. And as soon as I saw it, I started laughing. Too loudly, people were staring at me. A couple of travelers also waiting for the ferry were nice enough to give the pooch a scratch behind the ears, make it feel better about itself maybe.

But I couldn't stop laughing. A dog doesn't know your laughing at it, right? Is it wrong to laugh at a paraplegic dog? Is it anything as bad as laughing in a paraplegic human's face?

I think about these sort of morality questions a lot. We live in a world of grey shades, some people say, and there are no 100% right answers. I believe this, to an extent. But sometimes I think that there is a right answer. Often there isn't, like this dog on Lipe - unavoidably sad and intensely funny. But maybe there is a whiter shade of grey?

This animal has clearly lived off the generosity of others for a while. It can't leave the beach, ever. How could it drag itself like that over the paved street? Luckily for the dog, most people are nicer than me. 

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