"My Life as a Dog"
By: Bridget Robinson
(Source: Yahoo Images - Dogs)
I thought this essay was very eye-opening and the author wanted to get across to a large audience the idea of how much dogs impacts humans' lives everywhere. Being a dog owner myself, I related greatly to the content within this essay being that dogs are a lot of work but you love them regardless the responsibilities that come with owning them. "My Life as a Dog" written by Jonathan Foer is an essay that shows the logic behind a dogs actions and why they need to express certain behaviors and expresses the importance of conserving parks in cities as well as the benefits of owning a dog.
Something new and interesting that I learned from this essay was that Central Park's real estate would be worth more than $500 trillion if it was sold for a profit. The point of this statement in this essay is to show that even though the park is worth this much money, the city refuses to sell it because of the importance the land has to both humans and animals, such as dogs. According to Foer, the more the dogs are able to run around and expel energy, the happier and less aggressive they behave. This interests me because in today's economy and with how twisted/greedy the market is in major cities, I would have expected for major real estate buyers and sellers to try to sell parts of the park to make a profit but the importance of this land overruled the economy. I thought it was also interesting learning about the way a dogs physical activity level impacts their behavior.
I strongly agree that dogs positively impact humans lives and that we need to continue to make an effort to conserve this planet and that "nothing facilitates indifference or forgetfulness [as] much as distance" (Foer 216). I agree and connect with this personally because I have lived life both with and without a dog and have come to the conclusion that my life felt more complete with a dog in it. Also, our planet is a delicate system that needs to be maintained and taken care of because global warming is changing our seasons as well as our weather patterns which are upsetting habitats and the animals in them. Humanity is the cause of these environmental changes therefore we must continue to conserve the planet.
A point I feel the author should have considered when writing this essay was including a more detailed list of all the responsibilities a dog owner has when owning a dog to show the audience just how much dog owners love their dogs.
Source of picture:
http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/25600000/DOG-ssssss-dogs-25606625-1024-768.jpg
