In honor of Papi, watch these guys and gals and you may have trouble feeling any self-pity for a while.
Playing Frisbee http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXfcOBU58ko
Swimming http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMG9J4uegXQ
Born with just 2 legs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odWg1dUWCaA&f
Rear wheels have been around for a while now, aren't they great even in snow? http://www.youtube.com/user/johnjamsmoe29#p/u/1/cUwOx67qdMo
And the LITTLE dog is STILL the BOSS! http://www.youtube.com/user/johnjamsmoe29#p/u/4/B2AtDOcUGRI
Front wheels for a little dog. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvZM7QALveM
And for a bigger dog. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pu5elCd9hc
Wheels for a kitty too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_LwMtOJ9JY
Goats too? You betcha! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzHgMa6b5Pw
I was lucky enough to receive a picture of Papi in my email, smiling sleeping face in his owner's lap. He's obviously improving. Go Papi. For a bit about Papi, see here; for Papi's Fund and to make a gift to help him, see here.
I'm trying to cool off enough to write a civilized blog entry about what happened to Papi. In short, he was shot by a police officer IN HIS OWN YARD apparently because a 3 year inexperienced officer freaked out or was a control monger. The officer claims he was lunging and snarling but (surprise) the audio doesn't appear to be working on the dashcam video and the worst I saw was Papi jumping a bit and that could easily have been excitement over seeing a visitor to his yard. Police wouldn't lie about a malfunction, would they? Now, gee, wonder why that makes me suspect I won't hear snarling dog if it ever gets leaked.
Saw another news video where one can clearly see where the bullets hit pavement IN PAPI'S DRIVEWAY, HIS YARD, HIS TURF. Castle doctrine anyone? Well, not really, falls more under the more general heading of defense of property and police officers are NOT automatically authorized to go wherever they bloody well please. (Officer, consider yourself lucky because you wouldn't have gotten a second shot into a dog of mine; I'd have been instantly between the dog and the gun coming at YOU in defense of my property, my dog.) I don't think the first shot was righteous, I'm damned sure that shooting at a fleeing dog is DESPICABLE. And shooting in the general direction of pre-teen children? Seriously, now I'm simply reduced to spluttering incoherent anger!
Hm, maybe I'll just write it up since I doubt I'm going to cool off over this one. Need more cute dog videos to cool off enough to get to sleep now...