More about dogs

Speaking on a panel with other poets and short story writers at an event to celebrate the shortest day of the year, Chris van Wyk, who grew up in the historically very poor area of Riverlea, said if people in his community wanted a dog, they went out into the streets and got one. There are many streetwise dogs, or 'brakke' as they are known, in Bez Valley and surrounding suburbs. There are also more and more feral dogs moving around in packs, scavenging for scraps in piles of waste on street corners or outside local shops. 

Occasionally more refined dogs can be seen roaming the streets, such as the emaciated giant black poodle that wanders up and down Stewart Drive. 

My dogs are too insignificant in stature to be valued in my neighbourhood; an elderly Maltese, known as Miss Daisy or Fluffy, and a bad- tempered, overweight Dachshund, Ansel, who is only loved by his mother (me).

Bucks is my next door neighbour's dog.  There is no garden next door (it was covered over with concrete, the favoured option in many Bez Valley properties) so he gets his exercise by hurling himself down the concrete corridor alongside the house. Occasionally he is let out onto the pavement when my neighbour comes home from work.  My neighbour says he doesn’t have the time to take Bucks for a walk in the park and anyway, being constrained makes Bucks vicious, which is useful. But he loves Bucks in his own way. When he calls out: “Bucksie boy!” there is affection and admiration in his voice.  “His father is a bulldog,” he says with pride. I am different from my neighbour. We don't really share the same understanding of what is most important in life, but we are concerned for one another's welfare. There is compassion and respect between us.
 
Two fox terriers, Ninja and Cheeky are greeted with territorial aggression from Bucks, Ansel and Miss Daisy when they take a daily walk past the gate at dusk.

There is a growing trend of young men with well developed biceps and tattoos, swaggering with ostentatious bravado down the streets of the 'hood' holding leads (or tenuous looking rope) attached to straining, salivating, pit-bull terriers with names like Zeus.  Their impact is significant; shrieking men, women and children disappear in seconds.

The SPCA gets 15-20 reports of cruelty to animals every day. The worst cases are from Chinatown.  "Animals are not treated in a decent way by Chinese people,” the woman from the SPCA told me. “We try and educate them before removing the dogs but mostly they pretend not to understand what you are telling them.  They pretend not to understand English.  We use sign language to show dogs must have a bigger space, a kennel, showing them what to do…but they don’t understand.”