The Thing about Dogs is this:

They're wonderful.

We're watching a friend's baby right now and when he started crying Lucy and Pepper went nuts. They started wagging tails, and smiling and licking his feet like "hey, little puppy-human, it's okay!!"

They're. So. Wonderful.

And I don't understand why dogs aren't more generally accepted.

Don't get me wrong - - a lot of people like dogs and have dogs. I get that. But I just wish that a) they were more trusted and b) people wouldn't raise their dogs to be vicious, violent idiots and give the rest of our happy, caring, loving dogs a bad name.

See, what I'm really talking about here is airplanes.

Small dogs can travel under the seat in a carrier.

Large dogs are treated like luggage.

You have to pay out the nose for your dog to be put beneath the cabin, where temperatures are "regulated," and the workers are "careful" and your dog is "safe."

But rarely do you hear about the dogs that die because of it being too hot or too cold, or because they didn't properly pressurize the storage area or the ones who's cages weren't handled carefully so that they got out ON THE RUNWAY as the plane was landing.

Why can't they just give the doggies some downers so they don't bark or fuss, and stick the kennel at the back of the cabin?

I just don't get it.

See, we were gonna live somewhere like Sweden or Scotland someday. And someday we will. It's just a matter of figuring out if we a) trust the airline system, b) want to risk it or c) leave them in foster-care for a while.

Decisions, decisions.