September 21, 2003
Naptime after an exhausting weekend
10:30 p.m.
It was a strange weekend. We were working for much of it and that part was fine, it was the coming and going that was weird.
On the subway, a man started screaming at me and my dog. His verbal attack started as we were getting ready to exit the subway. I don't remember all that he said, but the gist of it was he didn't like the fact that I had brought my dog on the subway. "Leave that dirty thing at your own place. Leave it at your own place. Leave it at your ow..."
The doors finally opened and we escaped from his inexplicable wrath. Before I exited, I turned to him and said quietly "Dogs are allowed on the subway." As I gathered my wits on the platform, I was breathless and my heart was pounding. Dusty trembled in my arms - probably more from sensing my agitation than a reaction to the man's rant.
A woman approached to ask if I was okay. I told her I was, but expressed my puzzlement about the situation. Dusty hadn't bothered the man - she had merely approached the door and sniffed his shoe.
"He's probably muslim," she explained. "Islam teaches that dogs are dirty. The muslims are lobbying the TTC to disallow dogs completely."
I mulled this over as we climbed the stairs to King Street. He could have been muslim, true. I'm wondering if there's any other truth in the woman's story.
I don't want to point fingers at someone else's religious beliefs without knowing for sure, but it angers me when a group attempts to impose their religious beliefs on the rest of us. It's the same discomfort I have with Christian evangelism, or the Jehovah's Witnesses going door-to-door. But my own discomfort bothers me too, because I despise intolerance and clearly I'm not faultless in that regard.
And there's the practical side of this. If dogs *were* disallowed from public transit, it would make my life incredibly difficult. I don't own a car - transit is my primary mode of transportation. If I needed to take Dusty to the vet, it would be a very pricey cab ride. I don't know how we would get to work.
I have yet to see a poorly-behaved dog on the TTC. It seems like dog owners are all very mindful of the privilege and make sure their dogs are quiet and well-behaved. I've seen lots of garbage and grafitti on the trains, but no dog poo. I've endured many, many, MANY screaming children (and people), but never heard a dog utter as much as a 'woof.'
I feel strongly about this, I guess. I'm still mulling over the issues.
Oh yeah, one other bit of strangeness from the weekend. Remember the Bad Tempered Man? Well, apparently he lives in our building...