“Sometimes I don’t think that I have a lot of power. I am only a small dog after all.”
My name is Ton. Or at least that is what my human parents call me. I don’t know why they call me that but it doesn’t matter for that is what they call me. They trained me to turn to them when they call my name so that is what I do.
I am a small dog, much smaller than other dogs. I sometimes hear that they call me a teckel. I don’t understand that, but that is the type of dog that I am.
Sometimes I get to play with other dogs. Many of the other dogs are much bigger than I am and sometimes I don’t like that. I have to look up at them. They bark and people and other animals listen to them and react to them and are sometimes scared of them. I am just there, near the ground and no one notices me.
But then one day, my humans were taking me on a walk in a space with many other humans walking very quickly. I trotted in front of my humans on my cord as far as they would let me, but I didn’t want to go too far anyway because I didn’t want any of the humans to step on me, because I am small they might not notice me.
Suddenly though we stopped by a window and a small human came up to us and wanted to touch me. I like it when people touch me. It shows that they love me and care about me. I noticed too that not only do small humans like to touch me and admire me, but big humans too. I may be small but apparently I have an effect on big humans too. I like that.
We’re spending a lot of time now in the indoor and outdoor spaces where big humans and small humans go. It’s the time of the year where big humans buy gifts for small humans and small humans buy gifts for big humans and big humans buy gifts for big humans. I don’t really understand why but I think it has something to do with celebrating the arrival of a little human many thousands of years ago. I think this is so because my humans get angry at me when I treat the little wooden mother, father and child that they set out always this time of year as a toy. They don’t like that. They say it’s not a toy, even though to me it looks like a toy.
But I notice that some humans look at me the way the wooden adults are looking at the wooden baby in the toy that I’m not allowed to play with.
This makes me think that humans are loving and caring creatures, but I also know that this isn’t always true. You see my humans watch television sometimes. They watch the news. I don’t really understand what’s going on. I’m only a dog. But I see many images of moments and people that don’t look very happy. I see humans who are sad because the home they once had isn’t there. I see children that should be playing with their dog but instead don’t have enough to eat. I see dogs who have lost their humans.
I don’t like this and sometimes I wonder what I could do to change this. Sometimes I don’t think that I have a lot of power. I am only a small dog after all. But then I remember the little wooden baby who sits in the little toy that I’m not allowed to play with. And I think about how people look at me when they see me when I am walking with my humans.
What if I could travel to the places where people are hurting each other? What if I could go there and they could look at me before they hurt someone else? I can’t stop them from doing bad things really. I’m not a big dog. Only big dogs can do that. But if someone is looking at me, then that person can’t harm another at the same time, can they?
And then I remembered that I am just one small dog living with two humans. I can’t go to every place where bad things are happening in the world. But I’d like to dream that if there were hundreds, no thousands, maybe millions of little teckels like me that people could admire instead of harming their fellow humans, we could really help the world.
I don’t know how to make that actually happen, but maybe if I keep being the way I am, in my place, in my world, I can help there be peace.
Todd