Dogs and Pipes - smokingpipes.com
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Dogs and PipesMonday, April 2, 2018 by Chuck Stanion |
Many pipe smokers are dog lovers. Bring a dog to a pipe show and you'll meet everyone. It's no coincidence that when pipe tobacco ads were common, they often featured a pipe smoker in the fields with hunting dogs, or a pipe smoker in front of a friendly fireplace with a trusty dog resting nearby. Pipe smoking and dogs are a natural combination. It may be an inherent love for dogs that leads some of us to the pipe, because dogs and pipes are remarkably similar. Both come in all shapes and sizes. Both provide comfort and companionship. Both can smell a little bad when not maintained. Dogs and pipes enjoy different finishes; a standard poodle is rusticated, while a beautifully groomed Irish setter is a straight grain. Dogs and pipes can both be a little slobbery; pipe cleaners help with a wet pipe, but dog slobber still awaits a solution. Dogs and pipes both require frequent refilling, though a dog is somewhat more insistent. "If we're sad, a pipe or dog consoles us."Few of us have as many dogs as we do pipes. But the population of dogs in a neighborhood is similar to a pipe collection. It’s made up of dogs you know and like and interact with regularly, and a few that you avoid except under specific circumstances. When bad dogs leave a neighborhood and are replaced by good dogs, it’s like trading in a stubbornly non-compliant pipe for a new one. Family dogs are like those few pipes we all have that are always happy to see us, always want to play or walk or just listen. Some pipes seem to sense our moods and adjust accordingly, like dogs. If we're sad, a pipe or dog consoles us; if we're happy, a pipe or dog celebrates with us. If it’s a regular day, both offer simple companionship. Pipes and dogs both improve our lives, placing extraneous details in perspective, focusing our thoughts on pure emotions and the good things we enjoy. They help remove our thoughts from ourselves, immersing us in the pure, non-human relationships we cherish. Cats, though, are different. Cats are diabolical rodents, oozing judgment and condescension, constantly planning a hostile takeover of the household and, eventually, the world. But that’s a story for another time. |
Comments
Vinny.
I think kindness to animals will get me into heaven even more than whatever I did as a clergyman from 1973 until retirement in 2013. We've had cats since SWMBO and I were married in 1969, but this is our first special needs animal. In the immortal words of theologian Tiny Tim, "God bless us, everyone."
Vinny is now one year old. Totally different personality and a great friend. There is something about dogs...they just need us. He is a great part of our family.
Dogs have owners; cats have staff.
Dogs think, "You shelter me, nourish me, and love me with unquestioning infinite love.... You must be God.
Cats think: "You shelter me, nourish me, and love me with unquestioning infinite love.... I must be God.
Having a dog means having a pet and a friend sharing your living quarters.
Having a cat means having an untamed wild animal sharing your living quarters.
Dogs are easy to love. Cats are hard, but eventually, if you're lucky, you'll get there.
So far the new cat won't provide us with what SWMBO calls fuzz therapy, and doesn't greet us at the door....yet. We hope that will come with time and gentle patience.
I've always been a dog person, and we usually had a dog around the house throughout most of my married life. But after our last dog passed away we haven't replaced him, and I'm afraid we probably won't. Near the end he was quite a bit of work - and as we've both gotten older it became a bit of a hassle to take him out several times a day. Especially in the winter months. We're not getting any younger and he had a tendency to jerk on the chain when-ever he saw someone or any sort of animal in the yard. My poor wife ended up getting a broken foot when he jerked her off the porch one winter. I wouldn't mind having another dog - but after getting all the carpets replaced after his death the thought of having to housebreak a new dog does send shivers up my spine. I remember how much work it was getting all the furniture out of the various rooms so the carpet could be laid. And I haven't got another episode like that left in me.
Now I sit outside and smoke my pipe and I'm visited by a feral cat who has adopted us. She stays around here a majority of the day and when-ever I go outside she rubs up against me until I pet her continuously. So at least I still have someone to smoke with. But even though she's become a smoking buddy - I'm still a dog person.
De cat poops in de box.......
I'm actually a dog person myself -- was raised from age 4 untill leaving home at 18 for seminary with a series of three Boston Terriers: Chica, Boots, and Boots (2). When SWMBO and I were married in 1969 we lived in a small apartment and were gone most of the day; me at seminary and her at School of Design, Art, and Architecture, or as I referred to it when I wanted to mess with her, The School of Spots and Dots. You cannot have a dog under those circumstances: no one to take the dog out or keep it company during the day..
I never knew anyone who had a cat -- I sort of though of them as weird dogs. (I was soooooo right about the weirdness part.) Meanwhile, I was raised with dogs and she never had a pet beyond goldfish. We adopted a cat and I tried to treat it like a dog: playing fetch, whistling for him, etc. Over the years since, one cat passing on led to another, until today -- living in a three story house with a special-needs cat, who spends much of the day -- when not sleeping - carrying a floppy squirrel toy (Hammy) around in her mouth, screaming.... not meowing -- screaming. I don't know whether she thinks it's a kitten or prey, but she often leaves it on my noppy slippers by our bed.
At The Briar Shoppe in Houston
Love it!
Vinny.
But I'm holding my pipe while he keeps watch.
Jake was thrown out of a vehicle at the gas station I just happened to be filling up at on the mountain years ago. He looked completely lost and defeated watching his previous owner drive away. I opened the passenger door of my truck and hollered at him to get his attention. He looked at me from where he was sitting on the side of the road and I pointed at the seat. His face lit up and he came running and dove right in. I brought him home and he turned into the best farm guard dog you could ask for. Loyal as could be. I just laid him to rest this morning. I’m sure he will be sitting at the gates of heaven with the rest of my dogs waiting on me to come home one day. RIP Jakey.
For all the times that you bent to touch my head, and threw the ball, and gave me my favorite treat, and returned the love that I gave to you, for all of these things and more, I ask you not to grieve, but remember that we lived and touched each other's lives. My life was fuller because you were there for me, not as my owner, but as my friend.
Today, I am as I was. The grass is always green, the flowers are in bloom, and the warm sun shines gently down on me. There is no more sickness, no more pain. I can run, and jump, and play and do all of the things that I did when I was with you.
Please don't hold inside the love that you gave to me. Share it with another like me, and our love will live on.
~Jakey