Barking up the Right Tree

I voted. And I feel better about it. It was a close race. The pro-life dog down the street was closing in on the pro-choice dog behind our back yard. It was vouchers that turned the election, according to exit polls. "I'm not voting for some bitch who won't let my special needs kids go to a private school," said the pro-choice dog, referring to his opponent.

It was an important day, even though I slept for 20 hours. I thought and dreamed about all us dogs with arthritis and wondered why we didn't vote as a block to get what we want from this government -- more research and a cure. There are 43 million of us dogs out there creaking along, and we haven't barked much at all. The dogs in Congress have arthritis, too, and like us, they just put up with it. It's a pain we know, and I swear, some dogs are so used to it, I don't think they could live without it. It's become our companion, this pain. It is the devil we know -- all too well.

I think I'm going to have to start barking a little louder, no matter who gets elected because I'm not ready to say out loud that I'm going to live the rest of my life with this pain. It might be time for Creak to go to Washington and talk to some of the two-legged dogs, not about tax relief, but pain relief.