There has been a lot of talk — most of it critical — of Mitt Romney strapping the family dog to the top of a station wagon for a 1200 mile trip to a vacation destination. This supposedly occurred in 1983. I admit that it sounded a little bad to me too, until I learned that he didn’t strap the dog to the roof like a dead deer. The dog was inside a cage with a windshield on the front. Heck, that’s practically traveling first class for a dog. I’ve heard of people tying their dog’s leash to the back bumper and hitting the road.
The dog’s name was Seamus. (Coincidentally, Seamus is a name being considered for my expected new grandson. In case you’re wondering, we don’t strap babies to the tops of cars or let them ride in the backs of pick-ups in Florida.) Seamus crapped a lot while riding on the roof and covered the station wagon with poop. The experts say that was due to the extreme stress that Seamus was experiencing. Imagine though if they are wrong and Seamus just had diarrhea — and he was riding inside the car.
I can understand different reactions in Massachusetts than here in Northwest Florida. After all, most of them seem to believe that people of the same sex should be able to marry (How do they decide who wears the dress?), and they keep electing Kennedy and Kerry to the Senate. Here in Florida we know that dogs like to stick their noses into the wind. (I’ve never observed this to cause one to poop uncontrollably.) In fact, dogs here routinely ride in the open bed of pick-up trucks and seem to love it. It’s obviously not against the law here, as the MA Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says it is there.
Perhaps Romney should have let Seamus just stand on the roof of the car instead of being caged. That might have prevented some of the stress induced pooping.
Of course PETA thinks Romney committed a capital crime. It appears that they would prefer that he had put one of the kids on the roof and let the dog ride inside the car. I wonder if that would have caused the kid to lose control of his bowels.
The MA SPCA says that it’s now illegal to carry a dog in a way that endangers it. If that’s true, and it’s taken literally, it would seem to preclude the transportation of dogs by most any means. Dogs and humans are endangered anytime they travel. Dogs are endangered when they are walked down the street on a leash — or allowed to run free. Don’t you just love these laws that can mean whatever the ‘authorities’ want them to mean? Is someone somewhere thinking right now about a design for a car seat for dogs?
I don’t plan to vote for Romney, but if I was considering it this “Vacation” moment wouldn’t be a factor in my decision. The fact that he is a Mormon is the biggest reason I won’t vote for him. I’m afraid that he will want us to don black trousers and a white shirt and then hit the streets on a bicycle to spread the message.