Bo Obama

Today Bo Obama the official First Dog was introduced to the public. What is unusual is that President Obama promised that he was going to get a rescue dog instead of a pure bred dog gifted to him by the Kennedy clan.

Not that Senator Kennedy knows a lot about swimming but he gave the Obamas a Portuguese Water dog. Not quite the rescue dog. Not that this is a major deal or anything but I do feel it is blog worthy.

Here is why:
1. Major financial crisis.
2. Lots of overseas drama including a potentially nuclear armed Iran, Somali pirates attacking ships, North Korea threatening to start up their nuclear reactor again after launching a missile, Afghanistan, Iraq, and our President apologizing for America on foreign soil.
3. There is no 3! Good grief you'd think that this was the Second Coming or something the way the press has treated this dog! Do you know what it would have been like if the President had went to a rescue shelter and picked a mutt?

We are Americans! A nation of mutts. Remember the Great American Melting Pot?!?! No neither do I. We have become a nation of hyphens! Portuguese Water Dog indeed!

Nothing against the dog, he would have found a good home without the help of clan Kennedy. A shelter dog might not. People would have flocked to shelters to find a mutt of their own because Obama did it! With one compassionate gesture he would have galvanized pet owners in America to look at these dogs closely and to take a chance on a dog who might be a little bit older than a puppy. A dog to whom you might be their last chance.

Instead we get an elitist in Ted Kennedy giving the Obamas a dog. I'm a pet owner, long time readers will know that my dog died last Summer and can search back to that blog post. I don't feel I'm ready for another dog right now, I've got two cats to give me their undying love and affection.

I'm not so much criticizing Obama in this as I am the media. They have some really important things to cover right now that kind of trump the First Dog story. My point remains however, thousands, maybe tens of thousands of shelter dogs could have been saved if the President would have taken that one step.

You can pretty much chalk it up that if I were President I would have gone to the shelter and found a mutt. A big, unruly, mangy, older mutt and that would be my First Dog.

I'll get to the Peeps vs. Cadbury Cream Eggs eventually....