It was a rainy spring day. Everyone I met on my way to the train station was outfitted with umbrellas, rain boots, and raincoats, or some combination thereof. (I didn’t even own an umbrella and rain paraphernalia until we moved to Japan. Walking in the rain is not something anyone would choose to do in the United States. Rather, Americans simply jump in a car and avoid the weather--in the process, getting fat for lack of exercise, I might add).
In any case, my story is about a particular woman I passed who was walking her dog. Nothing unusual about that. After all, dogs must be walked even on rainy days. But wearing an aqua and blue checked raincoat? The dog, I mean, not the woman. Her coat was apricot-colored.
But at least she was walking the dog in the old-fashioned and, in my opinion, correct way. Only weeks ago my heart was warmed by seeing a family of three out for a walk. With his right hand pushing the stroller, the father was holding his little son’s hand in his left. The mother was holding the toddler’s other hand in her right, while also pushing the stroller with her left. I smiled, remembering such walks when our own son was that age. It was a cozy sight.
Until I noticed that the stroller wasn’t empty as it should have been with the not-yet-two-year-old boy walking. Riding inside it was the family’s dog. My smile faded quickly, replaced I’m sure by an incredulous look. The image I’d been enjoying was completely spoiled.
So, as I said, at least the woman in my neighborhood was actually walking her dog that morning, even if it was wearing a ridiculous raincoat. The dog wasn’t riding in a baby stroller or being paraded in its own specially-made-for-doggie pram. They do make them in Japan. In fact, for a mere $250 or so, you can get one near our house at a store called Harness Dog. In the same place, you can also purchase an outfit for poochie fit for the ball. You can also buy your own matching clothes. (And our kids used to roll their eyes when Bernie and I wore matching tee shirts!)
Although I have seen a dog wearing diapers in Jiyugaoka, I didn't see any on display when I walked into Harness Dog—not to admire the merchandise but to get the disturbing facts about how dogs often are treated in Japan. Better than children, I sometimes think. After all, how is it possible to spend such amazing sums of money on dogs, cute as they may be, when children under five years old are starving at the rate of 12 per minute?
“They’re not my children,” some might argue. “If people don’t have the money to raise them properly, they shouldn’t have so many children.” It may be a valid argument, but it doesn’t change the fact that in many countries, children routinely go to bed hungry or gaze listlessly with unseeing, sunken eyes at the world around them—until they die for want of only a small fraction of the food the developed world consumes and/or throws away daily. I simply cannot look the other way.
“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked,” Jesus told his followers in Luke 12:48. To ignore is to disobey.
Of course, it’s not enough to scowl at dressed-to-kill dogs carried in their “mothers’” arms on a shopping outing or a visit to a dog café to share tea. (This is not an exaggeration.) This is why for more than 30 years we’ve sponsored children through Children of Promise. (Currently we support two girls in India and another in Myanmar.) This Church of God child sponsorship program provides for the daily physical, spiritual, and educational needs of more than 3,800 children in 23 countries of the world. And there are many other excellent sponsorship programs that are also helping to alleviate the plight of destitute children in our world. If everyone would get involved and just do something—and I don’t mean dressing the dog in a ridiculous raincoat and going for a walk.
In any case, my story is about a particular woman I passed who was walking her dog. Nothing unusual about that. After all, dogs must be walked even on rainy days. But wearing an aqua and blue checked raincoat? The dog, I mean, not the woman. Her coat was apricot-colored.
But at least she was walking the dog in the old-fashioned and, in my opinion, correct way. Only weeks ago my heart was warmed by seeing a family of three out for a walk. With his right hand pushing the stroller, the father was holding his little son’s hand in his left. The mother was holding the toddler’s other hand in her right, while also pushing the stroller with her left. I smiled, remembering such walks when our own son was that age. It was a cozy sight.
Until I noticed that the stroller wasn’t empty as it should have been with the not-yet-two-year-old boy walking. Riding inside it was the family’s dog. My smile faded quickly, replaced I’m sure by an incredulous look. The image I’d been enjoying was completely spoiled.
So, as I said, at least the woman in my neighborhood was actually walking her dog that morning, even if it was wearing a ridiculous raincoat. The dog wasn’t riding in a baby stroller or being paraded in its own specially-made-for-doggie pram. They do make them in Japan. In fact, for a mere $250 or so, you can get one near our house at a store called Harness Dog. In the same place, you can also purchase an outfit for poochie fit for the ball. You can also buy your own matching clothes. (And our kids used to roll their eyes when Bernie and I wore matching tee shirts!)
Although I have seen a dog wearing diapers in Jiyugaoka, I didn't see any on display when I walked into Harness Dog—not to admire the merchandise but to get the disturbing facts about how dogs often are treated in Japan. Better than children, I sometimes think. After all, how is it possible to spend such amazing sums of money on dogs, cute as they may be, when children under five years old are starving at the rate of 12 per minute?
“They’re not my children,” some might argue. “If people don’t have the money to raise them properly, they shouldn’t have so many children.” It may be a valid argument, but it doesn’t change the fact that in many countries, children routinely go to bed hungry or gaze listlessly with unseeing, sunken eyes at the world around them—until they die for want of only a small fraction of the food the developed world consumes and/or throws away daily. I simply cannot look the other way.
“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked,” Jesus told his followers in Luke 12:48. To ignore is to disobey.
Of course, it’s not enough to scowl at dressed-to-kill dogs carried in their “mothers’” arms on a shopping outing or a visit to a dog café to share tea. (This is not an exaggeration.) This is why for more than 30 years we’ve sponsored children through Children of Promise. (Currently we support two girls in India and another in Myanmar.) This Church of God child sponsorship program provides for the daily physical, spiritual, and educational needs of more than 3,800 children in 23 countries of the world. And there are many other excellent sponsorship programs that are also helping to alleviate the plight of destitute children in our world. If everyone would get involved and just do something—and I don’t mean dressing the dog in a ridiculous raincoat and going for a walk.
