Yesterday John and I were strolling along rue St-Denis, a lively thoroughfare in Montreal on a sunny Sunday. What did we see? (Hint: Arf!)

• A tiny dog not much more than the size of a kitten, trotting beside its master to keep up (and keep from being trampled by other people!)
• A pit-bull-type dog, unmuzzled (How would it react to a child running nearby, or dashing right up to it?)
• A young couple loosely tying their cute little Boston Bulldog to a pole and entering a store. See generic photo above. Okay, it wasn’t raining yesterday, but still… Consider:
  • the hot sun beating down on the unprotected dog
  • the dog could somehow escape
  • a child could come up to it and be bitten
  • the dog would feel abandoned: you disappeared into thin air!
  • the dog could, in the blink of an eye, be stolen!

All in all, it made me wish I could carry a big sign:

LOVE YOUR DOG – treat it as you would want to be treated if you were one of them!