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Category: Undeniably Right Undeniably Right
Published: 19 December 2014 19 December 2014

I don't like sitting in an office all day, it's one of the reasons I left the corporate world. But sitting in my office now, on College Ave, I love the big windows and being able to see what is going on outside, it makes being inside easier, not to mention I enjoy what I do. Boy, do we see it all outside my office windows; the strange, the ugly, the good.

I love seeing the same people walk by with their dogs, waving and saying hello. It's one of the things that makes a town a community; an area a neighborhood. I like watching all the cars go by and seeing the confusion on the faces of drivers as they start to turn up Pinos Altos St and realize, sometimes too late, that it's a one way street and they are going the wrong way.

There are stereotypes about drivers; little old women, Asian drivers, teen boys. We know them all but one stereotype that doesn't exist and should is old men with little dogs. It amazes me how many old men I see driving by with a little dog sitting on their lap. Why aren't Jeff Dunham or Chris Rock making fun of these old guys with tiny dogs? It seems ripe for ridicule. To be sure, I've seen women with dogs on their laps and one woman who holds a terrified cat while she drives. But, for the most part, old men are the majority of drivers I see with dogs on their laps.

Then I got to thinking, "why do these guys hate their dogs so much?" I know from my dozen or so years as an insurance adjuster that at least half of all cars involved in multiple vehicle accidents are not at fault; it was the other person stopping too quickly or pulling out in front of oncoming traffic that caused the accident.

Riddle me this Batman: what happens when another driver makes an unsafe maneuver in front of an old guy with a dog on his lap? Forget that the guy can't control his truck as easily because of the dog. When the collision occurs the airbag will deploy and that poor little dog will have given his life for his owner. Just to please the man who wanted to take his little dog with him and get some sense of satisfaction or enjoyment by having his pet nearby.

Put the dog in the back seat, just like you do your little kids. You may not get the warm fuzzy that you do when the dog is close but you'll have the enjoyment of the dog's companionship for a lot longer. Especially in this town, where it's usually the police driving too fast and not coming to a complete stop...