Rudy - Houdini of the dog world
Jasmine and Rudy escaped again today. Jasmine is my 4 year old black lab - pretty, stubborn and strong-willed. Rudy is a terrier-cross-rat that was found wandering around South Nashville a few years ago. I got him as a companion for Jasmine as my Great Pyranees, Bear, was living elsewhere, although he has subsequently come back and I know have 3 dogs (4 really, but that is another story).
Rudy is not the smartest dog in the world, but he is crafty, and the ultimate ladies man. He is cute, he knows he is cute, and he uses it. He is also a canine version of Houdini. A few months ago he escaped and spent the whole night out in the middle of winter. I searched for him all night an finally assumed he had to be dead, and found him frozen solid the next day crawling to the house torn up.
He was badly torn up and it was touch and go for a while, but he pulled through (I believe paid for the emergency vets Hawaiian vacation), and a week after he got back escaped again and went right back, luckily with no consequences. We suspect the gang of Dachshunds over the valley, they can apparently be pretty vicious, although I am sure he is telling lady dogs he was attacked by a coyote.
Anyway I digress, my question is why dogs people continue to pursue behavior they know harms them, and could even kill them, even after a "wake-up call"? Is it that the immediacy blurs and fades, or that the thrill of the moment is too strong?
I know people who saw their mother or father die of lung cancer smoking, in some cases even after they see the evidence of it harming their own health. I have seen a man who claims to desperately love his wife fall into affair after affair, knowing that any one of them could end his marriage. I see people eating everything known to man that can be deep-fried, after a doctor has told them their arteries are 50% clogged.
Oscar Wilde once wrote that “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.", and in today's fast-paced lifestyle where fewer and fewer things are off limits that seems to be the prevailing attitude.
I prefer to believe in a different set of values:
"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."
Maybe the secret is identifying the way of escape, rather then focusing on the nature of the temptation.
Rudy is not the smartest dog in the world, but he is crafty, and the ultimate ladies man. He is cute, he knows he is cute, and he uses it. He is also a canine version of Houdini. A few months ago he escaped and spent the whole night out in the middle of winter. I searched for him all night an finally assumed he had to be dead, and found him frozen solid the next day crawling to the house torn up.
He was badly torn up and it was touch and go for a while, but he pulled through (I believe paid for the emergency vets Hawaiian vacation), and a week after he got back escaped again and went right back, luckily with no consequences. We suspect the gang of Dachshunds over the valley, they can apparently be pretty vicious, although I am sure he is telling lady dogs he was attacked by a coyote.
Anyway I digress, my question is why dogs people continue to pursue behavior they know harms them, and could even kill them, even after a "wake-up call"? Is it that the immediacy blurs and fades, or that the thrill of the moment is too strong?
I know people who saw their mother or father die of lung cancer smoking, in some cases even after they see the evidence of it harming their own health. I have seen a man who claims to desperately love his wife fall into affair after affair, knowing that any one of them could end his marriage. I see people eating everything known to man that can be deep-fried, after a doctor has told them their arteries are 50% clogged.
Oscar Wilde once wrote that “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.", and in today's fast-paced lifestyle where fewer and fewer things are off limits that seems to be the prevailing attitude.
I prefer to believe in a different set of values:
"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."
Maybe the secret is identifying the way of escape, rather then focusing on the nature of the temptation.
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