kissing dog on the lips Archives

When we were still thinking about getting a dog, my aunt who has three dogs in her house put one in my arms just to see how I would like getting licked by a dog. Dogs do that, she pointed out, can you handle it?

Some people love kisses from dogs. Some think it’s gross when you think about where the dog has been nosing around on walks, and of course some people have dogs that eat poop. (Apparently that’s one of my aunt’s dogs – -!!) And if you kept up with all sorts of doggy news, perhaps you have already read or heard about the Japanese researchers who braved the jaws of 66 dogs and 81 humans to collect dental plaque for study under the microscope in 2011 and published March 2012.

The results? Both dogs and humans carry bacteria in their mouths that can transfer to each other through kissing/licking.

What are some of these bacteria we are talking about?

“Typically puppy kisses are fine, but if your pooch is a scavenger, then a canine lick on the lips could jeopardize your health,” Dr. Oz tells PEOPLEPets.com. “The half-eaten hot dog your dog found on the street – or the feces he was nibbling on – could be loaded with germs and bacteria such as toxocara, salmonella, giardia, hookworm, tapeworm and many others, putting your family’s health at risk.” – peoplepets.com

The risk? Gum disease leading to possible infection and decay of the gums, jaw bone and loss of teeth in severe instances if left untreated. – dailymail

Now, time for the truth.

I don’t like dog slobber on my face but my dog likes it.

Today’s daily prompt wants to know what love is. Not being a romcom screenwriter, I didn’t think I can even start to define love :P but like any true daily prompter (haha~), even as I say this my fingers ran away tapping…

Love can be sublime.
Love can be passionate.
Love can be quiet.
Love can be loud.
Love can confuse.
Love can liberate.

Love can make someone accepting.
Love can make someone selfish.
Love can make someone die.
Love can make someone live.

Love can be all sorts of things.
Yet love is only one word – 爱.

But I do believe that if you care for something.
Love can bring you joy.
Love can make you tentative.
Love can make you cry.

Caring for something can manifest itself in lots of ways. A dog displays its love instinctively, jumping up on people and slobbering them in drool is an exuberant way of showing love. A human, a female human in this case, displays its care in a more complex manner. I don’t like it but I accept that you like it. So given your feedback, this logical female human being has gone to the great oracle that is Google looking for reasonable justification why either my dog or I should get her or my way when we are at odds with one another.

Yes, I’m sorry but that’s basically what all that drivel above is about. : P

But seriously, of the many manifestations of love, the ones I feel I need to treasure the most – Empathy, Acceptance and Magnanimity. Big words. A challenge, yes, to fulfill. But today I’m in the mood to ask myself, wouldn’t that be a good way to live?

It is easy to care and make allowances for a cute pet. It is perhaps less so with human beings, isn’t it? The expectations we have of people around us and the expectations we have on our animals, on other people’s animals exist on different levels. A lot of times, we only see the actions, we don’t see the cause. We don’t see why they do it, and we don’t see why they don’t do it. We are not enabled to empathise because we only saw a part of the whole picture that make up someone’s life. We don’t understand and in fact, we are not expected to be understanding. We are merely strangers, passerbys, acquaintances. And yet, we are sometimes keen to judge. We are. I am.

Empathy, Acceptance and Magnanimity.
To do that perhaps one needs to have an active interest in things,
to seek to understand why things are the way they are,
to allow for opposing views even when one feels defensive,
to agree to disagree.

Tough things when one is governed by strong emotions for causes one is passionate about.

But yes, this blog revolves around a dog that can’t care less really. One more leaf we can take out of the dog’s book about not taking life too seriously. And so I would like to end not on a moody note.

And so in this battle of dog vs human, to kiss or not to kiss, I proclaim the human wins. : ) The current tally is 1:1. Equilibrium is restored.

We rarely present our faces close enough for Donna to lick us there. Over time, she has started to give us gentle kisses on our hands, arms, knees, calves and sometimes even the soles of our feet. (This dog is persistently loving.) Though, she still tries to launch a sneak attack, jumping to give a quick lick on our faces that end up bumping our teeth, our noses instead. -____- Sometimes I wonder about all the potentially cancer-causing stuff I slather on my face everyday that she could possibly ingest. :P

We give lots of hugs and petting to our dog but no, no kisses on the face for us and for this smart Shiba Inu as well ;)