A Dog’s Life in the City

hello everyone, snickers here,

in case you are wondering, i am writing this the way i do most things: making mom do it with Shiba mind control. she wants me to share my point of view on things. i told her ok as long as she does the work of typing it. typing on the laptop is impossible when you have paws. i told her to type the way i tell her though without editing to make it perfect. besides, jaqi said that mom agreed not to edit her posts, so i dont think she should edit mine either.

today i am thinking about how city dogs live. i lived as a puppy and most of my life in our apartment with one bedroom near Times Square (that’s in new york city, the best place to find fresh meat on the sidewalk). now i live in a big house with corn and soybean fields all around but not many people or fresh meat. (i watch the cows across the street, but they dont look so tasty.)

in new york city there are these people called tourists. theyre like regular people, but they dont seem to know where they are, they act strange and wear bright colors. i have heard tourists say things like it is cruel to have a dog in the city and a dog cant live in a small apartment. i have even heard new people (sort of like tourists but they dont go home), say things like “i miss my dog,” “i gave him away when i moved here,” or “it would have been selfish to bring him.”

first, for those people who move without their dogs… if my mom moved anywhere and left me behind, i would have a broken heart. luckily, she loves me too much to ever do that.

now, for anyone who thinks dogs cant live happy in the city… you are nutty. i loved living in the city. our small apartment was great because i could see mom almost no matter where she went. now, in the house, i have to get up and follow her when she changes rooms. when we went outside, there were lots of people around to pet me and lots of fun things to do. i got to go in stores and eat at sidewalk cafes. we had dog runs that we played in. i had really close dog friends and human friends that i visited and played with a lot and a big group of shiba pals to play with too. we went for really long walks around midnight every night when the streets were quiet. mom took me to lots of places with her. i even went to the office a lot and played with mom’s work friends.

Here are some posts about my fun life in the city:

• how city dogs hunt on city sidewalks
• my bestest friend, bean, when i lived in the city
• a typical shiba inu saturday in new york city

i live in the country now. we have something called a yard. it is sort of like a dog run but it is way bigger and no one visits it but us. i like it a lot because i get to chase squirrels and cats and chipmunks. mom and aunt debbie build fires and cook hotdogs sometimes, which is almost as good as scavenging street meat! i dont get to go for long walks though because mom is afraid of the dogs that are outside without humans. she is also afraid of the dark. it gets dark here at night, so we cant take our long bedtime walks like we used to. i dont like that we have to get in the car and drive to go to a real dog park to play. i do have a small group of shiba pals here and we go hiking, which is fun. mom says ize healthier here from clean air and my fur is cleaner too. my skin itches right now though; our nice new vet said that’s from something called ragweed and it will go away soon. something i dont like about the country is that people dont take their dogs many places here so i cant go in the stores and stuff. mom says i probably cant go to work with her when she starts working again either.

anyway, i am saying that i would be happy living anywhere with my mom and the two places i have lived both have good and bad things about them for dogs. i hope i get to live in other places. as long as mom is there and we are doing stuff together, i will be happy. i think most dogs who love their humans probably feel the same way, so dont move without your dog. and dont say it’s mean to have a dog in the city. city dogs live great lives!

thats all for now,
snickers