The Wolf Is At The Door, Inc.

A Rose by Any Other Name

A Fable

Once upon a time, in a not so far off land, there lived some absolutely gorgeous creatures known as woofie-dogs. They were actually crosses of the wild woofie and the domesticated dog.

For many years they were accepted as just another breed of animal kept as pets. Many people bred them feeling they were doing the kingdom a great service by supplying people with these wonderful, loving, loyal, intelligent, independent, BEAUTIFUL creatures.

Then, lo and behold, it came to pass that someone was bitten by one of these animals, and a child was hurt, and a baby was dead..... They blamed these atrocities on the marvelous woofie-dogs!!!  That couldn't be!

They failed to take into account the lack of responsibility involved - that of not so wonderful pet owners, the not so wonderful parents, and especially the not so wonderful breeders.  When the town crier announced that WOOFIE-dogs had done these terrible things, the people became sore afraid.

The officials did not consider the irresponsible people involved, instead they blamed the animals. They decided that maybe the shots given to plain old dogs were not right for woofie-dogs. MANY people decided they did not want one of these dangerous animals living next door to them. They even made laws so that woofie-dogs could not live in the towns, or in the countryside.

Of course those who really loved their woofie-dogs did not want to give them up! It was unfair! And the people who bred woofie-dogs did not want to stop - they would lose a large part of their yearly proceeds.

But these animals were special (some said exotic), and they needed extra-special people to love them and care for them. Alas, there were too many woofie-dogs, and not enough special people. So all the extra woofie-dogs were put into dungeons and often killed because there were no homes for them. And because there was no more room in the dungeon.

Then someone had an extra special idea! People were afraid of "woofie-dogs", and the sheriff of the shire said that shots didn't work on "woofie-dogs", and the laws said you couldn't keep "woofie-dogs". The answer was very simple. If you didn't call it a "woofie-dog", then nobody would know what it was!

The people who bred the woofie-dogs thought and they thought. Then it came to them. If they called the woofie-dogs ROSE-DOGS, then everyone would like them again, cause everybody loved roses. But a problem arose, not all the breeders wanted to call their woofie-dogs rose-dogs. Some then decided to call them canary-dogs and panda-dogs.

There were a few though, who thought this was the wrong thing to do. They argued that nobody would believe that the animals who looked like woofie-dogs were actually roses, or canaries, or pandas. Ahah! argued the breeders, but the law only said WOOFIE-dogs were bad, it said nothing about ROSE-dogs or CANARY-dogs, or PANDA-dogs, so now all the renamed woofie-dogs would be safe!

Well as this is a fable, we shall proceed with the story...... As luck would have it, the canary people did not object to the use of the term Canary-dog, though they sometimes snickered, knowing full well that the "Canary-dogs" were really woofie-dogs - they did look just like the pictures of woofie-dogs.

The problem began when the rose people heard about this renaming phenomenon. They had a very strong union, and they were not about to let the woofie-dog people use their long fought for reputation! They decided to take their case to the magistrate.

To make a long story short, the magistrate had a very difficult time deciding if using the term "rose" in the name was a violation of the law. He decided to try allowing the woofie-dog people to use the term Rose-dog. But he warned them: " A woofie-dog by any other name is still a woofie-dog, and certainly doesn't smell like a rose".

The moral to this fable is "buyer beware" - just because it is not CALLED a "woofie-dog", it still may BE a woofie-dog, and be liable to the same restrictions and regulations as any other woofie-dog. It probably will act like a woofie-dog too.

We reserve the right to update this fable at any time.....

What's in a name?

Rosedogs?

Canarydogs?

Panda dogs?

The REAL Rose Dog