[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by truncated

and bolstered my already endless list of reasons to despise humanity.

I notice as I'm driving down my street that there is a dog loose. It's cavorting up and down the block, wandering into the road, etc. Now, if I haven't already made this known, I am an avid animal lover, especially dogs, and value their existence far more than that of humans, including my immediate family. This is not an exaggeration.

So naturally, I cannot ignore this. I get a leash and walk off in pursuit of this dog. He has wandered vaguely near a man outside mowing his lawn, so I ask the man if this is his dog. Meanwhile, the dog has walked over to me, licked my hand, and rolled over to have his belly scratched, so clearly this is no stray.


Needless to say, I pelted this degenerate with profanity. He waved some garden shears at me. I informed him that I would call the cops and have them take the dog to the shelter, and ensure that he get a ticket or some kind of violation notice..

I took the dog to the shelter myself. .

My heart broke today. For the puppy (named Cavi), and for the human race.

Originally Posted by Nega Mezlakia

Those early days were filled with surprises about life in a democracy, which, as a transient, I hadn't paid much attention to in Europe. The most memorable of these was an article I read in a newspaper a few days after my arrival. A man who had tortured his cat was sentenced to a three-month jail term, it shouted. This was obviously a BAD JOKE that had found its way onto the front page through some editorial error, and I clipped the column to laugh over with some Canadian acquaintances..
It was not a joke at all.
I realize the real joke was how anyone could sanction a government system that terrorized its citizens, accepted torture as form of fact-finding and hailed murder as an effective method of exorcising government opponents. Perhaps the biggest joke of all (though some may call it irony) was the fact that just such a government had been underpinned by a people who placed such emphasis on the rights of cats. After all, the military junta I'd left behind in Ethiopia had received a substantial amount of financial assistance from Canada and Pierre Trudeau's administration.."

From Nega Mezlakia's autobiography Notes from the Hyena's Belly