I was doing some regular canine maintenance with Grendel the other night. We stopped at Sassinak’s for a visit, and afterwards we proceeded southbound on Church St. As we were rambling through the Village we came upon a very small chihuahua standing beside his human. This tiny creature must have been 3 or 4 pounds at most. He was half the size of Barney. The teacup overflows.

I was immediately struck by the look of expectation in this tiny dog’s eyes. He looked at Grendel and Grendel looked back at him for a second. Then, the wee dog started quivering and bouncing around a little bit as if to entice Grendel to play with him. Unfortunately for the tiny canine, his human took one look at Grendel and quickly picked up the dimunitive creature.

Without saying anything Grendel and I carried on. The whole incident couldn’t have taken more than a few seconds. I felt kinda sad for the poor wee dog, because it was obvious that he had an overprotective human who coddled him and kept him from the company of other dogs. The little bugger had great expectations of meeting another canine only to have those expectations dashed. He probably would have had a few seconds of being nose to nose with his own kind instead of being carried aloft like some sort of Paris Hilton fashion accessory. So much for letting nature take its course.

Grendel likely forgot about the encounter within a few steps, but it has been bothering me for a few days. I could be overreacting but to me, this is as much an example of cruelty as the vicious bastards who beat their animals or worse. This poor dog probably doesn’t have any contact with other dogs. Grendel and Barney have friends and aren’t afraid to meet other dogs in the street. That’s just the way it should be no matter what species you are.