What started as a growl ended in a no-holds-barred barney that Surry Hills residents still recall. 15 years later the two were still arch enemies, and although their owners made up the dogs remained mortal enemies.
Steph Gearin recalls, “Didn’t make a difference to them. Every few months we’d have coffee and cake and try to get them to kiss and make up. They wouldn’t have a bar of it. So we were forced to be very respectful of their need to keep their distance.”
Asked how they overcame their longstanding feud the owners were perplexed.
Owner of Border Collie ‘Seb’, Maxine Baker says, “One day they just saw each other in the distance, and the growling stopped. Over time I assume they saw they have more in common than they thought. Next thing you know they couldn’t get enough of each other. Now they’re inseparable.”
This has spawned a new approach to global political international relations. Some pundits see a future where geo-political disputes are solved by simply taking the two warring parties to a park and letting them loose.
The Surry Hills Times spoke to University of Sydney Head of Political Science Professor Grahame O’Grady.
He’s now campaigning to the government to send the two canine elder statesmen to the United Nations to talk to Ambassadors and representatives to serve as an example to humanity.
“I think of the animosity surrounding the Gaza Strip, a situation that began after World War Two has been contested hotly for 70 odd years. The feud that these two dogs overcame spans well over 100 in dog years” said Professor O’Grady passionately.
The proposal comes at an opportune time with heightened tensions worldwide after incendiary moves made by Donald Trump formally recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, backed by intentions to move US embassies there. Officials confirm that the US President is breaking with decades of diplomacy in a move many warn will trigger unrest in the region.
“This serves as an example to world leaders that anything is possible. These two overcame a century of animosity. If two animals who are essentially completely primal, and have no access to the ego or super-ego surely we as humans can achieve more and see sense.”
Many experts now see a future where conflicts are resolved by simply taking two world leaders to a neutral territory such as a park every day for 20 minutes where they get to observe each other from a distance, where they can smell each other’s bums, and over time be comfortable with one another.
As opposed to the posturing and sabre-rattling of world politics involving complex negotiations around boardrooms, this approach calls for a ‘stripping away’ of the ego, whereby leaders return to the basics, to a more primal form. Instead they would defecate on the ground, their faeces would be picked up in plastic bags by handlers, and when the world leaders are ‘good boys’ they are given a snack.
The move has been met by a worldwide groundswell of support.
