Saw this on my way home last night. It’s not often that I see a cat and dog dressed up in star spangled outfits, at least not in my neighborhood, and so I stopped to leave a buck and take a pic. The next thing I knew I heard someone behind me say, “Don’t you think that’s kind of mean?”

I turned around to find a blond woman standing there with her arms crossed. However, distracted by my camera, I didn’t really comprehend what she was saying. She went on.

“To treat a cat like that - isn’t it mean?” She turned away.

Finally, comprehension dawned on me. “Was she talking to me?” I asked the guy in charge of the dog and cat.

Apparently, his listening skills needed some work too. “How’d the picture turn out?”

As I walked away, a feeling of crapiness fell over me. *Was* it mean? The dog and cat seemed okay, didn’t they? The dog had just been jumping around and wagging its tail right before I took the pic, and the cat was just sleepy (unless the guy gave the cat something to make it stay still - but cats are sleepy a lot, aren’t they?). Also, who was this blond girl to judge me? Didn’t she have anything better to do than to stand around 3rd Ave and get into other people’s bidness?

Still, as I went home, I couldn’t help but wonder if she was right. Maybe it *was* humiliating for the animals to be dressed up like that, just so their owner - or whomever he might have been - could make some dough. Then again, dogs and cats eat their own poo and lick their own assholes. Hard to say.

Related posts:

1. Meow wish tickets weren’t meow expensive
2. The saddest kitty in Union Square
3. Looking Back at UN Week II — and that mysterious blond
4. Pigeon Attack!
5. “Jungle Love” - V’Day Animal Sex at the Central Park Zoo