In Saluki-land, dogs are so revered and are entitled to the same freedoms as human beings (if not more). Maybe restraining the dogs would infringe on their inalienable rights. Interestingly, animal rights' advocates use the word humane while talking about their clients. And if there are city ordinances requiring the dogs to be restrained, probably those laws are inhumane and need not be taken seriously.
Seriously, I don't know why some people cannot understand the simple fact that dogs (however lovely and cute) are animals; they are not human being. Dogs, if not within the fenced perimeter of their owner's house, should be restrained at all times and barred from running loose in public roads. Failing to do so could result in accidents like what happened to my advisor here (who is a professional cyclist). Have a look at his blog to see what happened to him this March as a result of such negligence.
At the beginning of this semester, when I decided to do some exhaustion-therapy, I chose to bike toward Giant City State Park. However, my experiment was not so relaxing as I had dreamed. Having read my advisor's blog and having seen him after his accident, I was preoccupied all the way that some loose dog might jump at me. And it actually occurred to me twice as I've described in the middle of this post. But I was lucky and nothing serious happened to me. I just returned home more or less unhealed (from my exasperation).
Last week, when one of my friends had gone on some biking around the town to make some change to his monotonous life here, he was not so lucky. Somebody was walking with his pit-bulls in the night. And to respect their canine rights which were more important than human rights, he had leashed them on a very long leash, in violation of the ordinance control.
One of the pit-bulls attacked my friend and while he was trying to keep his balance on his bike and stay away from the attacker, the other one jumped from the other side and he fell into a ditch. Fortunately, the ditch was shallow and he just got a bruised ear and a twisted ankle (he's still limping nowadays). Interestingly, the owner of those loose pit-bulls didn't even bother to help my friend out of the ditch and simply carried on as if nothing important had happened. Well, he was actually so graciously kind and polite to say "sorry", before moving on.
While my friend was telling me the story, I told him sarcastically that he was lucky that nothing had happened to the pit-bulls, otherwise their owner would had not taken it so lightly and it would had been him who should have apologized while sprawling in the ditch.
And calling the police station was useless; the officer just thanked him for calling. Although even if he had had the specs of the pit-bull owner, I doubt that anything would have happened. I think he should had been bolder and should had not let the irresponsible pit-bull owner go by unperturbed. My first reaction would had been to take a photo with my cell-phone outright. Anyway.
A few weeks ago, we were talking in our grad room about the monotony and boredom of life in Carbondale. And usually, when I hate a place like this and when I find life boring to death like this, I sing the refrain in one of my favorite songs that relates to such situations: Hotel California. And in this case, my friends found it a perfect match to describe our miserable life. Then, somebody suggested making an adaptation for Hotel Carbondale. And this friend of mine volunteered to write the lyrics. And the rest agreed to perform the song when the lyrics get ready.
And not long after that grad room conversation, he had this pit-bull experience. This made his resolve stronger and he eventually sat down and wrote the lyrics for Hotel Carbondale. I have to admit that although English is not his native language (he's from Pakistan), he's done a very good job. And I have to mention that he's the brightest sociologist in our cohort. Whenever he gives a presentation in any class, the quality of his job makes the rest of us feel like freshman undergrads.
And that makes me even angrier about his pit-bull encounter. Anyway, enjoy the lyrics below and wait for our performance (if our grad life affords us time for that):
Hotel Carbondale
Lyrics: Muhammad Asadi
On a dark paved roadway, winter breeze on my rear,
Strong smell of gasoline, surrounded me every where
Up ahead in the distance, I saw two kids fight
My head grew weary as darkness enveloped the night
There he stood in the middle,
A pit bull from hell.
I questioned myself as in a riddle
What if he doesn’t like my smell?
He answered my question and attacked me on sight
A second one jumped and at my fall took delight
As I lay there in pain, the barking seemed to say….
Welcome to the Hotel Carbondale, (yeah)
Such a lovely place, such a lovely place
To be in such disgrace ...
Plenty of gloom at the Hotel Carbondale, (yeah)
Any time of year, any time of year,
You can find it here ...
Now my ankle’s all twisted, the pain transcends
There are some scary scary clouds, rainfall never ends
Like a book with blank pages, it’s boring you bet!
Some learn to surrender, some come to regret
So I called on the sergeant
‘Please get these dogs off the street’
He said, “Thanks for calling but we’ve long made our retreat”
And still that barking is taunting from far away,
Wakes you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear it say...
Welcome to the Hotel Carbondale (yeah)
Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)
To be in such disgrace…
They’re livin' it up at the Hotel Carbondale (yeah)
What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise)
A four floor “high rise” ...
Water’s dripping from the ceiling,
Seminar room’s cold as ice,
We are all just readers here with no printing device,
And in the TA’s chambers,
We gather for the chores
Thus we pass our daily lives,
For the weekend break at the stores
Last thing I remember, I was
Limping through the door
I had to find my direction to
The place that is the core
“Relax” said the greeter
You have arrived, take a cart
You can check all the sales you want
At the world’s biggest Wal-Mart…
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