Spotted: the Dog-Hitting Homeless Man
March 8th 2009 21:00
Photo by Don Fletcher. Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.
Walking in the city one Saturday morning, I saw a homeless man sitting outside a bank with a dog. The dog tried to walk away and the homeless man went and hit it to stop it from moving away. Some girls were walking in front of me and they must have been as horrified as I was as I heard one of them say, “Did you see that? He hit his dog.”
Later on, when I met my sister, I pointed the man out to her. My sister said, “I don’t think homeless people should have pets. If he can’t look after himself, there’s no way he can look after a dog.”
Hmmm. Interesting point. But I also pointed out to my sister that being homeless and most likely shunned by most of society, he must be lonely and would want to have some company, even if it meant having an extra mouth to feed. On the other hand, I could understand my sister’s attitude when I thought about the way he treated his dog.
When I used to walk around Sydney’s infamous Kings Cross I used to see another homeless man who had a small terrier. My sister was in awe of him; the dog was always in good condition and appeared well-fed, even though his owner wasn’t. She marvelled at his apparent determination to put his dog first. I used to see him with cans of dog food. Good on him for being able to look after another sentient being.
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