| As a dog-hater in a nation of dog-lovers, I have always done my utmost to avoid any confrontation | ||
| with other people's pets; not venturing into the street while stray four-footers are passing by and, once | ||
| outside, making elaborate detours if an animal appears on the horizon. I always make my fears known | ||
| to a new acquaintance as soon as possible so that, should she have a pet, I can eliminate the risk of | ||
| 5 | being enthusiastically set upon as soon as I knock at her door. | |
| Yet I am invariably met with the most profound lack of understanding. 'It's all right, he won't | ||
| hurt you' is the most common rejoinder to my reasonable request that the family pet be shut in the | ||
| kitchen while I visit. However, my dislike of dogs is not based solely on the possibility of being | ||
| bitten - I also find them repulsive. Visits to pet-owning families are, I hasten to add, only made by | ||
| 10 | me under considerable persuasion, as I have come to anticipate the outcome. | |
| Having previously extracted a promise from new acquaintance to shut pet up during my visit, I | ||
| nervously knock at the front-door. This disturbance immediately sets off a ferocious barking just | ||
| behind the letter box, which is followed by a howl of dismay as pet is unceremoniously thrust into | ||
| the kitchen. I enter and all goes well for ten minutes or so, when the piteous whimpering from the | ||
| 15 | 1rear of the house begins to tug on the heart strings of my hostess, who murmurs: 'Poor thing, he's | |
| not used to being shut up', and casts a reproachful look in my direction. | ||
| The next stage is for the animal to succeed in opening the door of its prison, after unceasing | ||
| labours to that end, and spring joyfully into the lounge. If I'm lucky, pet-owner will recover sufficiently | ||
| quickly from her surprise at my terrified yell of 'Hold him! Hold him!' to arrest the animal's | ||
| 20 | flight in my direction, and thus save me from being licked to death. More often, though, it's a case of | |
| my making a humiliating retreat up the hall towards the front door, followed by a soft-hearted | ||
| pet-owner, who can't understand the necessity of shutting up poor Fido any longer. | ||
| Perhaps the attitude of most pet-owners is an extension of 'love me, love my dog': if you offend | ||
| my dog you also offend me. That which was not intended as an insult becomes one to these sensitive | ||
| 25 | people. Well, I too am sensitive, to the extent that I will not visit where I know the hostess to be more | |
| sympathetic to the feelings of her pet than to mine. I do not expect preferential treatment, merely | ||
| equal consideration. The dog is considered to be a member of the family and, as such, has free run of | ||
| the house, but my visit is not going to restrict the animal's freedom permanently. | ||
| In spite of my feelings, I can see that animals are amusing in their behaviour, especially when | ||
| 30 | portrayed on television or in films, and I see that their owners really do love them, perhaps as one | |
| would love a child. So why is it that I, who do not consider myself especially gifted with the power | ||
| of entering into other people's feelings, can appreciate this relationship without actually having | ||
| experienced it, while so many dog-owners, who claim to have an affinity with their pets, cannot accord | ||
| to a fellow human-being a mutual understanding? | ||
| Gill Walton in The Observer, June 24, 1979 |