Wednesday, August 01, 2007

"Man's best... um,..."

What do you call a rented friend that you only see for short periods of time? (I mean, one that you see outside of a cheap motel room, of course.)

Canine escort service?

(H/T to Dustbury.)

7 comments:

Oleg Volk said...

Works for me. Why do you think I keep coming to Knoxville? To play with your cats, of course!

Anonymous said...

Just remember...

You can love your pets, you just can't "love" your pets!

Mauser*Girl said...

That is about the dumbest thing I've heard in awhile. Just goes to show that this company (and the people who'll be using this service) have absolutely no idea what owning a dog is all about. Then again, most people don't... and then wonder why their dogs have "issues".

Anonymous said...

I would think that after being moved constantly between "families" the dog would be an emotional basket case.

7.62x54r said...

Just shows that not all people with money are intelligent. Still, it's probably cheaper than being a sole owner, yes I said "owner", of a dog. However, since animals are for working or eating and dogs aren't tasty and we don't have sheep, goats or cattle, live in the Alps, hunt anything that requires a dog to retrieve, etc., we don't OWN one. Very little is more irritating to me than to call a friend about doing something together and they can't because of an obligation to their pet, except maybe going to their house and trying to enjoy human company while a dog jumps, licks, barks, etc. Cats that hide from strangers don't bother me so much.

Before anybody comes down on me, just consider it nondiscrimatory interspecies misanthropy.

phlegmfatale said...

Just like oxygen bars and other odd-human-behavior trends, the dog rental thing really found its start in Tokyo some years ago, I believe. It's an extremely odd practice, but in cities where space is at such a high premium and chock-full of workaholics, I can understand why someone would take a day off and just walk a dog around the city. Tart that she is, I think my dog would love me to rent her out while I'm at work, but there seems a pretty broad gulf of what one might expose their pet to by letting just any old moneyed yahoo take off with them, albeit briefly.

The apartments I manage are not luxury but are rather high-end, and I have several residents who put their dogs in doggie day-care daily to the tune of hundreds of dollars per week. Someone could run a match-making service to hook up would-be pet renters with busy people who want their dogs walked? In fact, perhaps that's what that enterprising person in California has done. A fool and his money...

Matt G said...

Not so dumb, to me.

I see LOTS of dogs that people with good intentions put in the back yard, and never spend time with. What's the point of that?

I'm a believer in dogs spending most of their lives outside, but why get a "pet" that you don't pet?

An animal --any animal-- that you take under your care is a responsibility. If you're just going to feed it and water it and maybe pick up it's poop once in a while, then what's the point?

This is actually why we don't have a dog in my family at this point.