Togo Goes Somber

Occasionally I borrow Daddy’s phone to watch dog and horse videos. Mainly dog videos because, for the longest time, I thought horses were ginormous dogs.

I really like the videos where dogs dance to the music of D.J. Moody and his “I’m a Happy Guy (Happy Dog)” song. Speaking for myself, being happy is what being a dog is all about. That, and making humans happy.

But sometimes, we have to be somber.

Togo’s Abe Lincoln pose.

“Somber” is a a new word I learned. It means to be very serious, to feel dark and sad. I hear “somber” a lot on the nightly news. A lot of dark and sad things are going on these days.

So, while I prefer to be happy and playful, this is a time to get serious and to get people to deal with problems. Yes, I said “people.”

Dogs don’t really mean to perpetuate problems. (Cats operate at a more diabolical level. A topic for another day.) Yes, accidents or misunderstandings involving dogs do happen sometimes.

For example, it was purely an accident when I knocked down that little girl who came to play. Honestly, I thought kids dodged better than that. I also thought they bounced better. Don’t worry, no small humans were harmed that day. And I learned a valuable lesson. Win-win.

But some people don’t seem to learn. Or they look the other way. I asked Daddy why.

That’s when Daddy becomes somber, too. This is what Daddy looks like when he is somber — only less hair.

Daddy says that people could come together and change things that make us all somber. But instead, he says that people in power only want to change things that don’t inconvenience themselves and they make it hard to change those things. In the meantime, others are inconvenienced or hurt or killed.

I don’t think that’s the way it should be. So I’ll give you my advice . . .

Stop it!!!

Yes, you heard me. With three exclamation points.

You people need to step up.

All of us dogs had a meeting. We agreed that you need to start doing things that help others. And you need to stop doing things that hurt others. And we’re going to hold you accountable. We know where you live because, after all, we live there, too.

We’re watching. And the last thing you want is a bunch of somber dogs watching you.