A friend of mine grew up on a cattle farm in Eastern Ohio. We had a lot in common as educators and as coaches. But the one big difference between us was dogs. I had a dog, one that I actually brought to work (school) from time to time. On the weekends when we had long wrestling tournaments, requiring hours to setup and run, I\u2019d try to bring my dog over to school for at least part of the time. That way, she wasn\u2019t alone at home for most of the weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To me that was natural. Not only did I love her, but I was responsible for her. Besides, kids loved her too, and she was incredibly well behaved. But my friend didn\u2019t feel that way at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his life, dogs were a threat and a menace. Dogs would wander onto the farm and chase the cattle. Not only would the cows panic, but they would run, into the woods, into barbed wire fences, and down into ravines. The dogs, at best, reduced the value of the cows by chasing the weight off of them. At worst, cows were injured or even killed. Either way, it was a threat to their business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So he wasn\u2019t a dog fan. Dogs belonged where they belonged, not near a school (or a wrestling mat), and definitely not near a cattle farm. And when dogs became too much of a frequent menace to his herd \u2013 well – he got rid of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At first, I was shocked by that attitude. I\u2019ve had a dog, ever since I can remember. There\u2019s a succession of dogs in my life: from Princess to Louie I and Louie II, to Rory, Paige, Sierra and Dash (the best dog ever); and now \u201cThe Five\u201d, Buddy (maybe co-best ever), Atticus, Keelie, Lou and CeCe. But my friend had his whole different experience, one that I grew to respect, even though I couldn\u2019t agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You probably know where this essay is going. South Dakota\u2019s Governor Kristi Noem, like most politicians looking to \u201cmove up\u201d, wrote her autobiography. While it hasn\u2019t been published yet, she\u2019s releasing \u201cteasers\u201d from the book to generate interest. And one of those teasers was her story of shooting her own dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That story is generating a lot of \u201cheat\u201d in the \u201cMainstream Media\u201d, with commentators furious about the callousness and cruelty of shooting a dog named Cricket, only a puppy, who didn\u2019t behave in a way the Governor approved. All three late-night comedians jumped on board with scathing jokes. She\u2019s being pilloried for every failure: not training the dog properly, not accepting the dog\u2019s failure as a hunting dog and doing something else with him, not keeping him under control when he escaped from her truck and attacked a neighbor\u2019s chicken flock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If she couldn\u2019t control the puppy, why not take him to a shelter, or a rescue, or somewhere other than a gravel pit to deliver the kill shot? And, of course, all of those criticisms are absolutely right, at least to Jenn and me, who just spent $6000 on Atticus\u2019s knee surgery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Worse, Noem is literally bragging about it. This isn\u2019t some obscure chapter in her book, she specifically put it out there to generate publicity. And, probably, to gain the admiration of one man, the Republican nominee for President of the United States, looking for a Vice Presidential candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Donald Trump loves \u201ctough men\u201d. He\u2019s shown it over and over again, making admiring statements about Putin, Xi, Orban, Kim, and Erdogan. And Trump likes \u201cperformative toughness\u201d. He\u2019s not a connoisseur of football or baseball, but he\u2019s all-in for professional wrestling. And, I\u2019m guessing, for tough women who shoot their puppies named Cricket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump\u2019s not a dog person either. He didn\u2019t have one in the White House, because, he said, he\u2019d look \u201cfoo-foo\u201d walking the dog on the White House lawn. What that really means is that Trump sees dogs as political props, not companions. And, I have to point out, that there have been other Presidents who didn\u2019t like dogs, notably Richard Nixon. In fact, Nixon was so uncomfortable with dogs that to do a \u201cdog moment\u201d for television, they had to sprinkle meat powder on Nixon\u2019s pants leg to get a dog to come to him — dogs know!!. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My fellow dog lover\u2019s (and there is more of us), don\u2019t miss this.\u00a0\u00a0There is a significant number of people who don\u2019t like dogs.\u00a0\u00a0And there are those who need to see some \u201cperformative toughness\u201d to prove a politician\u2019s, and particularly a female politician\u2019s, \u201cstrength\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0So while Governor Noem\u2019s execution of Cricket might seem like political suicide, it might also be the \u201cshared space\u201d in some obscure political Vin diagram.\u00a0\u00a0Where do the circles of \u201ctough politicians\u201d, \u201cNot Dog People\u201d and Donald Trump intersect?\u00a0\u00a0Right over Cricket\u2019s dead body.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"