Dog Gone It

I loved cats once, but then I moved to Nampa.

     For thousands of years, Arabs have loved cats. I would have expected that since Ancient Egyptians loved cats. In fact, many cultures love cats. I never expected that any of them had anything against dogs. I know that one of the Egyptian gods was Anubis. I never knew how Arabs felt about dogs until I met Ahmed.

     I grew up in a dog family. I have had cats and they are difficult to take care of. I briefly made an attempt at being a dog show handler. I walked cocker spaniels around the show ring. 

     I adopted a schnauzer and a cocker spaniel. I was accustomed to being a dog owner who spoiled dogs rotten. They slept on the furniture, including the bed. They stay inside the house. 

     This was one of the reasons he gave me when I asked him why he would not visit me. In fact, he said that nobody dated me because I had dogs. I didn't always have dogs. 

     He refused to come over and had all of these excused lined up. "I'm too busy." "I have homework." "I don't like your dogs." It went on and on. He always had time to go to his friend’s house. He always had time to go out drinking. No time to come over?

     He constantly asked me why the dogs stay in my room. I told him that is just what we do. My mom let the dogs sleep in the house. My grandmother let her dogs sleep in the house. I am accustomed to dogs being on the furniture. 

     He went on a tangent about bestiality. I told him that it was nothing sexual at all. The dogs were my babies and I didn't have children. I didn't see my life with children since nobody wanted a relationship with me anyway. 

     When he finally decided to visit my house, the dogs stayed out of the room. He asked me why the dogs stay in my room. I told him it was because they live there. 

     Ahmed eventually began looking for a dog for himself. I realized that it is important to know what you want first before considering adopting or buying a dog. He could not make up his mind what he wanted and he lived in an apartment. 

     He could not have a big dog. He wanted a German Shepard, husky or Burmese mountain dog. When he saw my father's dog, he wanted a Rottweiler. These dogs were too big to live in an apartment. He wanted to keep it outside or train it to use the bathroom. What he wanted was virtually impossible.

     He also looked at Chihuahua puppies. He wanted a puppy or a young dog. What he really needed was to conduct research on dogs and possibly drop a little bit of his culture. 

     What many people do not know and what I did not know was that Muslims disliked dogs. I am under the impression that they believe that dogs are filthy. I would assume that they do not like dogs because they are beggars, thieves, and sometimes scavengers. 

     I read a recent report about dog owners in Malaysia. Someone created a program where people could touch dogs. This caused a huge stir because of the Muslims think that touching dogs is forbidden. There is even a cleansing ritual for when you touch a dog. 

     "Although many Muslims in other countries do not view touching dogs as forbidden, conservative Islamic groups here say the Shafie school of Islamic jurisprudence that they follow views dogs as unclean and requires the faithful to undergo a ritualistic wash if they come into contact with canines." (Fuller, 2014).

     It never occurred to me why Ahmed made such a big deal about my dogs. He wasn't the only person I met who complained about dogs. I dated someone who disliked his mother's dogs. There are some people who hate dogs and there are some people who are allergic to dogs. There were reasons here that had nothing to do with what Muslims believed. 

     Here, people fight about the difference between dog and cat lovers. Some people hate dogs and some people hate cats. I have met people who are afraid of dogs because they were bitten as a child. I figured that Ahmed was one of those people who hated dogs. It had much to do with his culture.

     I found it surprising that he wanted a dog. I began to think that he was trying to rebel against his culture even though there was much he would not leave behind. He was doing what was considered haram. 

Reference

 

T. Fuller (2014, October 26) Want to touch a dog? In Malaysia, it's a delicate subject. The New York Times Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/world/asia/dog-petting-event-underlines-malaysias-culture-wars.html?_r=0