And then you have your pets.
Or do they really have us?
I guess it all depends on who you ask
or even who you trust.

They say,
whoever they are,
the authorities on such things,
that people were the ones
who made animals like human beings.

And since I’ve brought up making.
what about their genes?
Is there a cogent reason
if there ever really was
for breeding mutations
like too short legs
to go above a dog’s paws?

We doom animals we breed
to what nature didn’t choose,
make them vulnerable
to respiratory disease
and other assorted bad news.

Now before you get all up in arms,
or legs, since that’s my subject
let’s talk about that designer breed
that some of you covet.
Please remember that I love them all,
I just have little patience with their humans.

At the risk of being labeled a long legged dog and cat fascist,
I have to question the wisdom of breeding cats with a short leg characteristic.
That’s a cat that can’t jump. Does that make any sense?

I’m not a scientist.
I don’t know how long
it would take for the dog and cat population
to breed out what we’ve done wrong.
As we’ve found out with other stupid stuff we silly humans have done,
it’s a lot easier to sing, than to un-sing a song.

© Joel Tipple