Git along little doggy

This afternoon, I glanced out my front window and observed something that didn’t sit quite right with me. It was on the weird side of life. A couple were out walking their dog and their little toddler. He was probably somewhere between 18 months and two years old. Both the dog and the toddler were on thick leather leashes. The dog was having a fine time sniffing things every two feet and the toddler was trying to have a fine time following the dog’s example. But every time he bent down or dropped to his knees to examine something, his mother gave his leash a yank and hauled him to his feet.

He wasn’t happy about that. He wasn’t having fun. And I was, frankly, racking my brain, trying to come up with a good reason why this child was being hauled along on a leash. It wasn’t crowded out there. They were the only signs of life on the street. The street is very quiet...no traffic to speak of. And little fellas do have hands to hold. Little kids like to hold mommy’s hand and walk with her. Being yanked around on a leash is not really a fun thing to experience, I shouldn’t imagine. And yes, I can understand it if the parents are in a crowd trying to keep track of a toddler who can move at the speed of light. But there just wasn’t any logical reason for it today. And the way his mom yanked him around bothered me.

Finally, the little guy had enough and he plopped his bottom on the ground. When mommy tried to lift him off the ground via the leash, he tucked his legs up and refused to put them on the ground. Mommy finally picked him up and carried him under her arm like a sack of flour. I’m not sure he liked that much better, but it was probably an improvement over being hoisted around on a leash.

I don’t know. Maybe part of it was the juxtaposition of dog and child, side by side, both being walked on thick leather leashes that made it so jarring. Or that the dog was being treated better than the little boy. I didn’t like it very much.