The F-Word

There’s been a whole lot of hoopla about a video of adorable little girls in tutus dropping the f-bomb. Have you seen it? Click here for the censored YouTube version.

Personally, I’m always amazed at the controversy that one word ignites. Literally, some people are calling the video abhorrent. My idea of abhorrent: abused animals or children in refugee camps. Granted, little girls swearing isn’t proper, but is it abhorrent?

I have my own f-word story. As usual, it includes animals. Forgive me, I relate everything – even that four-letter stick of dynamite – back to dogs, but here goes:

Recently, I had a verbal altercation with a woman that walks her dog Bruno unleashed on the greenway. If your dog is behaved, there’s no problem with them being leash-less, but Bruno is a little brown beast and has bit my pack on several occasions. Over and over I’ve politely asked this woman to control her dog. At one point, I was even frustrated enough to write a letter to the local paper about Bruno and his irresponsible human.

Anyway, a few weeks back, I was walking four dogs – about 180 pounds of muscle- and Bruno came out of nowhere, full throttle attack mode. Thankfully, the dogs I had were all well mannered, and since Bruno’s only thirty pounds, I was able to keep him at bay with my foot.

When his human, a forty-something plump, pale-faced woman, finally reached her dog and got him under control, this was our exchange:

“Mam, put your dog on a fucking leash, or I’m going to put him in my trunk and take him to animal control,” I said.

“Don’t you curse at me,” she replied.

“I just wanted to make sure you understood English,” I shot back.

I’m not proud of my angry outburst, nor would I drop her dog off at animal control, but that woman doesn’t know me from Pocono Joe, and the only thing she heard was the f-word. The fact that I was threatening to take her beloved pet to a dog’s version of the Temple of Doom didn’t faze her in the least. Nor did she seem concerned about the fact that if my pack hadn’t been behaved, her little Bruno could have been ground beef.

I wanted to mention the fervor surrounding the video and this incident because I think there’s some similarities beneath the initial shock value of the language. I don’t know if FCKH8.com produced that video just to sell t-shirts or if they have a higher purpose in mind, but I do know that focusing on what’s important and not how things appear is a valuable tool that too few wield, even when it comes to their dogs.