Dog Points
One sign of Amsterdam’s health is marked by how many points dogs and cats earn everyday.
To be clear, and as is often misunderstood, you do not get a point merely for being cute. Sure, your adorableness could be what turns this head in your direction, but the standard is not skin-deep or, more accurately, fur deep. Points must be earned.
The most common dog points are awarded for running alongside a bike or riding upfront in a basket. The most common cat points come for sitting in a window with Cheshire attitude or navigating a balustrade four stories or making freindly with the touists who come into the cafe said cat lives in.
And yes, on occasion, exceptions must be made to the “one point at a time” scoring system. The Yellow Lab that jumped from one canal boat to another with aplomb earned the rare double-dog point, as did the Jack Russell who sat, as if we were both in a Hopper painting, on a barstool next to me.
A Saturday night cat, in the deepest part of the Red Light District, hunting something with total focus stands out in my records. Maybe it was the posture that told the many passersby, “I’m at work, and yet and not here to be pet.”
As you can tell, the scoring system is more than a little eclectic and lacks transparency. Thus the inevitable Dog v. Cat competition means no end of complaint arrives at the home office, all with the same predictable bias:
Dear Sir,
The Committee of Cats, were it to meet, would strongly object to the following points awarded those dogs who merely . . .
Or
We here at the DOG Lobby . . . RUFF, RUFF, RUFF . . .
You can just imagine.
Back to dialing up a global village that pays people to do their thing and to give later on this week.
A note on Shakespeare and Democracy? Tomorrow?