My Secret Santa Blog
By A.N. Other

I have a theory that the change in the animal kingdom from hunter and predator to cute and cuddly was in fact an overnight affair. We went to bed one night with the animals being competent hunters, and woke the next day to them being sweet and loving and friends to the human race.

The period of which I speak, or in fact the day of which I speak was the release of the first Disney full length film. Until that time we kept dogs in the yard and cats were either around or more commonly not around, being usually in an alley with their peers making mayhem or whoopee. The Disney magic changed dogs into two fairly distinct camps*. One the yard animal who lived in a kennel and walked on all fours and the other a two legged creature who lived on a fluffy cushion and was able to pick thing up in its front paws and even to use household implements such as kettles and knives and forks.

In other early movies dogs which were pets were also divided into two types*. You had the pet who was a house pet. These would be little miniatures and would belong to the rich lady who ate chocolates and would call the dog poochy woochy. These dogs would be cute and lay around all day being pampered. When someone came into the home who might possibly want to marry the rich ladies daughter then the aforementioned poochy woochy would be the guardian of morality and worry the ankles of the suitor till they left the house running. The other dogs in films were the dogs that we now favour as pets. They would be bigger and stronger and be totally dedicated to the safety of their owner (Who was invariably a ten year old boy named Chuck) These dogs would be called Hank and would live either in a kennel in the yard or if the folks didn't spot it sneaking in it would sleep on Chucks bed.

Cats on the other hand have remained virtually unchanged since the time of the Temple cats of Egypt. They are all natural hunters and even after a huge bowl of food will still go out through the cat flap to capture an innocent bird or frog. Cats have always basked in the knowledge that they are by far superior to all other life-forms and that will never change.

I wonder if Ned takes out Goofy or Pluto when he goes out on the 3.11 mile (As measured by Garmin) walk each day? Or if in his mind he is walking the fields with Hank the faithful hound or little poochy woochy**



*Yes I know there are more than two types but this is my blog and I wanted to divide dogs into two types so that is what I have done.
** Again I am using bloggers prerogative to veer from the true facts.