Sunday 17 August 2014

Am I mean-spirited to laugh at Fenton's antics?

When a friend showed me the famous Fenton deer-herding incident on her iPad, I hurried home to watch it full-screen on my desktop computer. I laughed. And laughed. And shared it with family.



But when I read this article, I wondered if I was mean-spirited to enjoy another dog-owner's humiliation.

So I had another look at the clip, and I still thought it was funny.

I asked myself why I didn't feel guilty about laughing.

I think it's because of the joy I see in Fenton the dog, doing what all our dogs wish they could. Running free, hunting, top predator. And I'm laughing with the owner, not at him, because I know how it is when a relaxed, home-loving canine suddenly shows us she's descended from wolves. I won't forget the moment when Penny, as a puppy, emerged from the bushes with a glorious, colourful bird limp in  her mouth. I managed to convince myself that she'd luckily stumbled across the warm, already-dead body of a rosella, but I made sure to never give her the chance again to 'play' with birds.

One of my favourite cartoons is pinned on the wall above my computer. It's a Non Sequitur cartoon, by Wiley Miller.


4 comments:

curator said...

No, I don't think you're mean spirited. It's a "I'm laughing with you" thing - Lord knows the dogs in our life always seem to have ONE big thing they'll do. In our case, our Brittany (years ago; he's gone now) took on a field full of cows, little realizing they would be so curious that...they would all get together and trot after him. So we got to see the Fenton thing in reverse.

Molly the Airedale said...

We must be very mean-spirited too because we thought the video was hysterical ☺

Love ya lots♥
Mitch and Molly

parlance said...

Mitch and Molly, I'm sure your humans were laughing sympathetically, not meanly, lol.

parlance said...

Curator, cows! It must have been scary as well as funny.