If you have been following along, and why would you not, you will recall we have recently looked over the lives of dogs in postcards. We spent one column looking over recent additions to inventory which covered the relation between dogs and their pet humans, and then another on the number one activity of dogs on postcards, which is, as noted, “number one”. But we have not yet considered what dogs do with their lives when not accompanied by a biped or a call of nature.
Dogs have rich, full lives, with or without us. Some postcard publishers have attempted to use them as an example to the rest of us, showing that opportunities are all around us if we greet the morning properly.
The everyday world is filled with fun and exercise if we simply look around us. Everythng around us is to play with….
And everyone is a potential playmate.
HOWEVER, dogs do not buy postcards. (It’s one of their few social flaws…along with that every place is a potential potty business.) So unhappy dogs are a major theme in the world of postcard art as well. The mournful expression of a dog missing a human companion animal has always been a big seller.
When humans want to express the sorrow of a loved one’s absence, a dog is the obvious choice. Nobody and nothing is sadder than a sad puppy.
When you tie this to a dog’s well-known loyalty (isn’t that a scene in the Odyssey?) those puppy eyes make an excellent substitute for the “Wish You Were Here” postcard cliché.
Could YOU resist a card like this? Well, shame on you. (We are still taking explanations for the abbreviation the sender added to the lower right corner of this message. “Sealed With a Hot and Heavy Kiss” is running highest in the voting, but it does seem a little…powerful for 1909.)
Still, a happy dog is what people want to see (that is, of course, why the poor, depressed doggies create such an “Awww!”.) So they have been used to express hope for a new location, and…what? No, of course not. This is about the excitement of being in a new place and enjoying the chance to make it all your own by…well, yeah, by marking out your territory. But, as they say, “Doggies is as doggies do.” (Wait. No, let’s move on. Next time we’ll do something more tasteful, like, say, all those cards about stray cats having sex on the back fence.)
Blogsy Babbles 