Babs gone to the dogs
DOGS are the best. They are full of contradictions that make them adorable and absolutely necessary.
They love outdoors but they love being inside. They love being with other dogs and they love being with humans.
Their videos get more hits than any videos of human beings, but they don’t have any active social media accounts themselves. They don’t even have thumbs.
Dogs have developed all the best of human qualities. They are funny, loving, loyal and truthful. They give unconditional affection and demonstrate no prejudice.
Advertising agencies know that if they want to sell toilet paper, all they have to do is put an attractive puppy in the commercial. The irony being of course, is that dogs don’t use toilet paper.
In fact, dogs have got the world so well organised that they have enlisted human beings as the species responsible for the removal of canine waste. We carry bags in honour of their movements.
Dogs are excellent role models for human beings. It is no wonder that it can be difficult for some people to say “goodbye”.
This is why we have developed some beautiful ways to remember the way we lived together.
It’s not unusual for a family home to contain a little shrine on a mantelpiece, a gentle collection of photographs — a long nose, some sad eyes peeping out eternal, essential, always a part of the pack.
Across this nation there are many lemon trees that spread their shade across a sacred patch of interrupted earth.
Millions of back doors have a collar and a tennis ball, always waiting.
We design memorials because we don’t want to forget, we want to celebrate the way we lived together.
But ... Barbra Streisand has gone too far.
Streisand is an exceptional talent. She is in her mid-70s now, but she has plenty of runs on the board. She can sing, she can act and direct. She has sold out shows on Broadway and Vegas.
She has the star power to get what she wants and maybe this is why she has taken the concept of canine memorial to a whole new level.
Apparently Streisand had a special relationship with her pooch, so much so that she had her dog cloned. Now she has two new dogs in her life and they look ... Exactly. The. Same. No kidding.
Cloning is not a normal way of life. It’s a photocopy. Cloning is a fascinating scientific phenomenon that is presenting the human race with a brave new crop of ethical dilemmas.
It demands a whole series of Q&A episodes.
It is one step beyond the value judgments of anti-vaxxing and we have to have a grown-up discussion about what should be legal and what should be outlawed.
Streisand ’s choice to never let go of the leash proves that if a billionaire is prepared to pay the wrong doctors the right amount of money, then we are on the fast track to a curated life on Earth.
Maybe it’s driven by love and unconditional affection, but is this really what we want for our future?
Sure, The Mirror Has Two Faces, but Hello Dolly! ... let’s not forget The Way We Were. Ross Mueller is a freelance writer and playwright