The Dog Park Pond

By now you've all see pictures of the most philanthropic dog in the world, Darcy. Just in case you need to be reminded:

Darcy is a very active dog. Definitely more so than I can ever keep up with. When he was a puppy, his favorite thing was to go to the dog park and run around like a maniac for hours.

It's been years though since Darcy has gone to the dog park. Unfortunately, a few years ago a dog died from drinking contaminated water from the pond at the park and now I won't risk taking Darcy there. He isn't just called the water dog because of his dedication to the clean water cause after all.

In the United States when a dog dies from diseased water at a dog park, we shut the whole park down. We bring in a team to decontaminate the whole park. And then we send out press releases informing the community that the park is now safe and encourage them to return. Of course, there are some people, like me, who never will because the risk seems too high. (How exactly do you decontaminate an entire dog park and keep it safe anyway?)

Now I love dogs. There can't possibly be any question about that. But, don't you think there's something wrong when we're more concerned about the cleanliness of the pond at our dog park than the water our fellow human beings drink?

Darcy deserves clean water, and it is my responsibility to provide him with it. Maybe it is also part of my responsibility to help my brothers and sisters in other countries have the same. After all, it is only through God's mercy that I was born in Connecticut, not Uganda.