All You Need is Love

Apologies for the non-original title, but this week I've been thinking about how one of the most interesting things about the human race is how focused we are on each others' differences. This has become so apparent in the news with debates over immigration, marriage and childhood bullying. We stereotype and generalize other humans because it's easier for us to classify people in a simple manner than to really get to know who they are as individuals. Dogs don't do this. Sure, they may sniff a butt or two they don't like, but it has no basis on looks or appearance. So why is it that humans have to be so focused on categories that they have begun to classify dogs in the same manner?

This pretty girl is Miss Abbey. Abbey is my friend Steph's dog and I had the ultimate pleasure of living with Abbey my senior year of college. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better companion at the time.

Just hanging out in my bed, no big deal.

Who says girls can't play football?

Abbey was more like a house dog than anything. Every roommate fed her, let her hang out on the couch and took her for walks. I took her to the oval, snuggled with her some nights, and often came home from class to find her perched on my bed looking out the window watching the world outside. Sometimes I wish I could look out a window all day like Abbey does.

Other hobbies Abbey enjoyed (many of which are still important to her) include:

• Stealing McDonald's cheeseburgers after my friends and I passed out after a night of drinking and not being capable of consuming the unnecessary amount of processed food we thought we needed

• Helping us meet boys because we had trouble doing it ourselves
  

• Playing football with strangers
  

• Walking on mulch because it feels soft on her paws

• Finding a shady spot under a picnic table at the dog park because it's hot in the summer in Columbus and the other dogs are too crazy for her taste

Abbey is a Pit bull-Boxer mix, also known as a mix of breeds people assume are vicious. Woody weighs 14 pounds and suffers from fear-induced aggression, which we're clearly working on. Abbey weighs more than 60 pounds and has only ever been known to be aggressive to my Grady Sizemore bobblehead, and even that was a complete accident due to her abnormally long tail.

I understand why there are limits on breeds when it comes to rent stipulations, etc., but I wish it didn't have to be this way. If every person was able to experience the sweetness of this dog like I did, they would find it difficult to comprehend why they get such a bad reputation. Luckily, there are rescue shelters for bully breeds that make sure these sweet animals receive proper care in a home that knows how to love them unconditionally, no matter what society says about them.

In a perfect world, we would drop stereotypes and short attention spans in favor of using the analytical mind we all possess. Then, there would be no need for housing restrictions and bully breed shelters. Nor would there be a need for laws that restrict people from being people. Humans have a mind so complex that we are capable of doing this, yet we don't. As complex as they may be, dogs don't think too much about how they need to feel. Dogs don't stereotype. Dogs just know love. No matter what the breed or circumstance, that's all that really should matter.