Wild animals and marriage?

I’m a fan of the show “Ax Men” that airs on Sunday nights. Monday my wife called me to say that one of the show’s characters lost his 4-year old son to an attack by the family Rottweiler.

My first reaction was sadness, because any time a young child dies it bothers me. My second reaction was “duh”. I believe you can either own a 4-year old kid, or you can own a Rottweiler, but you can’t own both.

I already know what you are going to say. “But Shannon , it’s how you raise the dog that matters. Not all Rottweilers and pit bulls are bad.” And of course that’s true. But let me explain something to you.

Our family dog has an anger problem. He has one of the worst temperaments that I’ve ever seen on a dog, and at least twice a week he snaps at my son or somebody else. The difference is, we own a small dog that could chew on my son’s arm for a week and not get it chewed off.

I did a little research, and it turns out that Rottweilers, pit bulls, and Presa Canarios (don’t know what that is) are responsible for 74% of reported dog attacks, 65% of the deaths, and 68% of the maimings. What I take from that is every dog can have a bad day, but when one of these dogs has a bad day it turns into a bad day for everyone involved.

And while we are on the subject of animals, let’s come up with a new rule- no more pity parties for people who get killed by wild animals when they are messing with them.

The comedian Chris Rock had a great line when talking about the Tiger that attacked the Las Vegas performer Sigfried, or Roy , or whatever his name was. He said “That Tiger didn’t go crazy, he went Tiger.”

I felt the same way last week when the television news was flooded with the story of the Disney World trainer who was killed by a Killer Whale. “Tragic” is what they called it. I call it a matter of time. Folks, they named the species “Killer” Whale. Not “Warm and Snuggly” Whale, or “Come Ride on my Back” Whale. “Kil-ler” Whale.

Stop calling these deaths tragic. The Holocaust was tragic. September 11 was tragic. The Sopranos ending their t.v. run was tragic. These deaths were a lack of common sense. Leave wild animals alone.

Now, let’s end this column on a high note.

My wife and I know two young couples that are very close to getting married. Both of them are in that “can’t get enough of you” stage, and boy has it been fun to watch from afar.

One of the couples will leave each other little messages on Facebook, and my wife and I will call each other and talk about it. The other couple is involved in the pre-marriage classes that most churches offer nowadays.

I was reminissing about the time when we were in our own pre-marriage classes, and I got the best piece of advice of my life. The teachers were an older married couple who had gone through their own ups and downs over the years.

The guy teacher told us “You always hear that marriages are 50-50 effort from both partners, and that’s not true. In fact, it’s hardly ever 50-50. It might be 60-40 on her part one day, and 80-20 on his part the next day. She might put 70-30 effort in for a whole year, but that’s not the important part. The important part is that when either partner needs the other to carry the load, he or she does so without question or complaint.”

That has been a valuable piece of information for me over the last 12 years, and I hope they still teach that in those classes.

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