How do you make these dogs happy?

How do you make these dogs happy?

Dr Abe V Rotor

 

                         Pastel drawing by Anna Christina R Rotor, circa 2000

Make these dogs happy, I once asked a child,

     with pencil drew a pair of bone,

which made a change in the dogs' expression,

     their tails and eyes had shown.

Another child drew a house in gaily colors;

     with arch door and window;

and he wrote the name of the new owner,

     but King slept on its shadow.

Another child drew a tree with a bird's nest;

     which is happier, dog or bird?

He is referee, matchmaker, guardian,

     he plays the role of the third.

Up front a child made familiar drawings:

     playthings for dog and child.

happiness is in playing the same game

     with the master though how wild.

At the back, a little girl kept drawing;

     shy, she hid her work but I saw.

Why she had unchained the dogs! Freedom!

     she wrote with knitted brow.

Here I saw two views, domestic and wild -

     which is sad, which is happy?

How little I know of the lesson I ought to know, 

     of dogs in the wild and free. ~