The dog has been chained up for eight years, from birth to now; this is the life of a rural mongrel.
What do dogs mean to modern people? Companionship, or friends? There aren't many people who truly raise dogs like children. More often, dogs are tools for people. Tools that can be used to warn others. The purpose of keeping a dog is simply to have an extra pair of ears. So that when someone breaks into your house at night, a dog can alert you. Nothing more.
Most tools are prone to getting bored easily, especially when their value isn't high. When a small mixed-breed dog first comes home, it might be novel for a few days, receiving treats. But as the dog grows older, its lifelong job begins: a guard dog. This job truly accompanies it for life. A chain, a makeshift kennel, a bowl of leftover food. Its daily activity range is limited to no more than one meter. This is the life this black dog has lived for eight years.
Seeing this makeshift doghouse, it's incredibly rudimentary. It's just a shed built from a few bricks and stones. Shelter from the wind and rain? Nonsense. When it rains, it probably rains even harder inside than outside. The dog has no clothes to change into and can only wait for the sun to come out and dry its fur. This little shabby place can't keep out the winter winds. It has to tough it out on its own.
In rural areas, especially for mixed-breed dogs, people absolutely do not feed them dog food. Some even refuse to give their dogs steamed buns. Why? Because the appetite of an adult mixed-breed dog is truly astonishing. A dog's appetite is more than a person's daily food intake. To save costs, the dog's daily meals consist only of the owner's leftovers. The quality of the food depends entirely on what the owner eats; if they're lucky, they might even get a bone. That's considered a New Year's treat.
Poor eating and sleeping are external factors. For a mongrel dog, the greatest enemy is loneliness. Spending all its time confined to this tiny space, even a person would go crazy, let alone a dog. So, the mongrel is always incredibly excited when its owner comes, jumping and hugging them. Sometimes, it even accidentally knocks over its food bowl, leaving it without food for the day.
A dog's life is only a little over ten years, and the lives of these mongrels kept on leashes will be even shorter. I really hope to do something for these dogs, but there's nothing I can do. Sometimes I wonder, why is there such a big difference in treatment? Is it just because mongrels are cheaper? Huskies and Golden Retrievers live so well.
