(no subject)
A less personal and more reader oriented description of my experiences in Italy.... well... this should be easy, shouldn't it? After all, this is why I am on livejournal, for the wonderful world of the internet to read the most popular thoughts that run through my head, and not so popular, but hell, they are mine, and thus golden. By the by, this introduction may not even survive the writing of this entry, but I may as well try to make an introduction so that when I get to the meat of the matter it will be decent. Rambles help, so I have noticed, and thus in my classroom days with papers, I would write an infinite amount of pages and then have to cut it down because half of the material was my rambles to get to the point... So yes, rambles, fun but pointless.
Animals in Italy:
I am an avid animal lover. Large or small, bald, furry, or feathery, two legs or four, I love them. But dogs have a special place in my heart. I have often commented on the canine population, or rather the population of canine owners, in Europe, and often praise the general consensus of animal allowances within the continent. I have seen this in England and France, Germany and other Baltic countries, but for the lack of long term residence, Italy is the only location where I have any right to make comment.
To most Americans, save those few like me who value our canine company a bit more highly than that of other humans, a dog is a man's best friend, but a friend of a servile status to its owner. Indeed, unless given a name and a gender, the poor pup is condemned to a neuter state, an "it" without an apostrophe for "its" possessive, unable to own anything, and with the general indifference of human Americans (who knows how our four-legged friends think?) the poor dog will never be given a chance to have a name or gender. An American dog is walked, often told to hurry the most private of matters, locked up in the house for the day while its adult owners are at work and the young owners at school, or put in a car with a window cracked while its masters shop. A dog has no dignity in the States.
In Italy , dogs are not just walked, they are companions in the true sense of the word. The humans who live with them take them out running, walking, and for special celebrations. Dogs have their own coats, sometimes several layers of clothing and perhaps boots. They are a very active members of the family. They go grocery shopping, clothes shopping, and they take part in lunches in restaurants. In The Italian language even goes so far as to give dogs, on an individual basis, a gender when one is lacking. "Cane" is masculine, so they are at least given some personality when in the most unloved and abandoned state. There are some dogs who have even achieved the maturity and trustworthiness to go out with their friends at night. So long as they wear their collars at all times, they can go out and have fun, and if they find a quiet dark corner, even engage in promiscuous acts, only wary of the unwitting nocturnal runner.
The European, and particularly Italian, dog has achieved a level of civilisation and dignity that can only be dreamed of by those living in American societies.