A woman in a battered little Nissan Sentra accompanied me for a long stretch of Taylorsville Rd. today. First behind her, then beside her, then behind her again, I got quite a good view of her car.

In addition to the dents and scrapes, her car was festooned (I don't think I've ever used the word 'festooned' before. Cool) with bumper stickers. One announced she hearts "Dexter," and another that she hearts "boys who sparkle." An odd combination. Bumper stickers also declared her support for Bluegrass Brewing Company, the Beatles (3 separate Beatles bumper stickers- I heart the Beatles and two others), and music as a whole. She is also a fan of "Twilight."

(If I have just described your car, please post a comment with your explanation for the bumper sticker described in the next sentence.)

But the bumper sticker I still can't figure out- and which has bothered me off and on for a few hours now- is "I heart dogs and I vote."
I mean, both are admirable sentiments, but I really don't get the connection. Is this an election issue, or has it been an issue at any point since the late 90's when her car was assembled? Did Mitch McConnell get re-elected in '08 on an "I kick puppies" platform and I missed it? In which direction does the dog-lovers' voting bloc trend,and what did the other side do to piss them off?

Sticking with the theme....

Not long ago I was at my desk and someone handed me a card to sign. It's always somebody's birthday or promotion or wedding or death-in-the-family or retirement or move-on-to-a-better-job so I grabbed a pen and prepared to sign it.
I read the card to discover the emotional genre (since I'd hate to sign 'sorry for your loss' for a marriage or 'congratulations' for chemo treatments) and saw it was a condolence card for a woman I know pretty well and like.
But I absolutely refused to sign the card; the condolences were for the passing of her pet dog.
Again, the sentiment is fine. I am truly sorry her dog died. But just a week previously we'd passed around a card for a fellow who lost his step-daughter, so to me it seemed entirely inappropriate to do the same for a pet.

I do not at all regret not signing the card. No one would even have noticed. My big mistake was mentioning to someone else that I thought it was a bad idea. The person I discussed it with agreed with me, but someone else overheard and quickly reached the conclusion that I'm an animal-hater, and I always hate dealing with those people.

Pets are not people. It seems obvious. I should be able to say that without being declared a dog-hater.

But apparently I can't, so for the record I do not hate dogs.
Except Georgia Bulldogs this week.