Diary of Matilda the Sock Monkey Day 21 A Dogs Life.

     My day consists of the fallowing at 9 am I wake up and I am fed breakfast then I am walked on a leash out the back door. Between 10 and  2 it is a mix of licking my sister and sleeping with a walk in there somewhere. At two we are fed lunch and walked again. Between 2 and 9 we get played with and petted to our hearts content. Then we are given supper walked and put to bed.
      Until, recently I thought every dogs life consisted of these simple things eating, sleeping, potty time, play, and petting. Recently my eyes have been opened however and I am not sure that I like what I have seen. Sometimes my mom puts me in my cage on the back porch so that I can get some fresh air and sunshine. From that vantage point I have witnessed something that has scared me for life. There is a group of dogs close by that there entire existence consists of  doing laps around 10 x 12 cages. Once a day they get a bucket of food thrown at them and sometimes but not offten they get a run in play area. My mom says that these dogs are bread as hunting dogs there only function is to find raccoons. They do not get to play with people or get a jolly good scratch on there rump and they go potty were they eat and sleep. This saddens them greatly to the point that they bark and howl all day and night. This barking causes their caretaker to come and yell at them if that does not make them quiet he hits the cage with a big stick. On really bad days when the barking has escalated to such a crescendo that  no amount of yelling quiets them the caretaker enters the cage and hits the dogs with a stick. This causes the dogs to spend long hours whimpering and limping around their cages until the pain subsides where in they start their endless barking again.  I wonder if these dogs got some love if they would spend less time barking and more time enjoying the finer things of life.