Off-leash dogs roaming around old-time Phoenix


I really don't see many dogs off-leash roaming around my little suburban neighborhood of Glendale, and attitudes about dogs have changed so much in the past couple of decades, if you're younger than me it may be hard to imagine the dogs that roamed around neighborhoods.

Personally, I never owned a dog until thirteen years ago, and my dog entered a world of dog leashes, and owners carrying around little plastic bags. And since I've lived in my current house, for a little over twenty-five years, if I ever see a dog walking down the street I assume that it has just run away, and some distressed owner might be coming by. If I can safely approach the dog, and read its tag, I will call the number so that it can go home. This would have been a ridiculous thing to do in old-time Phoenix.

The dog that you see up there on the northwest corner of 1st Avenue and Washington, may or may not belong to the man standing nearby. And if a whole bunch of dogs went by, no one would notice. Dogs roamed around Phoenix, sniffing around, checking for messages on fire hydrants and leaving their own, finding romance, or possibly fighting other dogs, that sort of thing. Yes, they bit people, and the dog catcher would be sent out to take them to the pound, but dogs roaming around was as natural as seeing birds fly by.

It might be hard to imagine, but many dogs just slept on the porch of their house, and when their buddies came roaming by, sniffing around, they joined them, to roam around all day. They would come home to be fed, and sleep, and do it all over again the next day. It was a dog's life.

Times have certainly changed. I don't know anyone nowadays, even old-timers, who think that it's perfectly natural for their dogs to roam around the neighborhood all day. And while it's safer for people, especially children, it is kinda hard on the dogs who nowadays are just cooped up their whole lives in tiny yards, and are lucky if they can stretch their legs at a dog park every once in a while. In old-time Phoenix, dogs could run all over the wide open spaces!

Woof! Woof!
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