Slapped and stitched across numerous telegraph poles are pleas for the return of a family pet. In this case, a maltese fox terrier cross.
On certain flyers an image bearing canine resemblance is included and only a guess in the direction of East will yield the possibility that the photo is indeed of the dog in question. Details of the dog are also listed, but in a rather suspicious form. First, the printed age of 13 months is scrawled out and replaced with 13 weeks and the date of the last sighting has been changed from June 13 to July 3.
According to standards defined by the amount of grime, deformity due to moisture and bird castings, the flyers are still pretty new. Considering that the once booming dog and cat fur trade has been recently highlighted in some form of media, the hasty midnight adjustments make no sense in the scheme of things.
And a scheme smells to be afoot like the snug loafers made from the fur. In any event the sympathy for a recently lost young dog resonates hungry bowels in some cultures. Dinner will be served and the dinner tastes so much better when the meat is young.
Written on Friday, 11 July 2003