My friend Carolyn has a number of police, sheriff, etc. members in her family.   The other day, she was walking her dog--who controls everything in her life (much like Squig controlled mine) including when he wants his leash on or off.  He escaped, ran down the block, exercising his civil rights to do whatever he wanted. 

A neighbor a ways down the street saw the dog in his yard at the very moment a police car drove up, nabbed the critter, and put the dog in his car.  “First time I ever saw a patrolman arrest a dog,” the man commented.

Most of the time, Pablo, the dog, only eats if Carolyn hand feeds him.  There is no end to what we will do for our dogs that we would NEVER have done for out children.  But after raising four children myself, I can assure you that raising Squig was ten times easier than raising any of my four.  Or Carolyn’s three.