Putin is going to the dogs...

I love dogs, but I haven't been able to have one most of my life. I was single till I was in my 40s, so I've had cats. You can leave them alone for a few days without issue. When I got married, we adopted a Sheppard-Lab mix named Elmer. A couple of years later we got a stray Puggle and named him Bugs. Unfortunately Bugs passed on from pancreatitis a year ago, and we miss him terribly. I've also loved K9s and the dogs of other friends and family. 

And I really don't like people who mistreat dogs (pets in general). I really hate people who buy strong willed dogs like Pit Bulls or German Sheppards, then ignore them. Dogs need discipline and training. Without which they go wild, and in some cases can be a thret to others. Last year I used my pistol for the first time, and it was for a charging Pit Bull. I would have preferred to shot the owner. 

I was listening to Mark Levin and he referenced a report from the American Spectator. Vlad Putin, Biden's BFF, likes to show off his masculinity. I would say toxic masculinity, but masculinity is not toxic. In this case, the man is toxic. But he mentioned an article on how Putin keeps a number of large dogs, and apparently likes to use them to intimidate his visitors. Especially the ones from the west:

Vladimir Putin has an assortment of hounds. Think “Hound of the Baskervilles” sort of hounds. Among them are some of the meanest, nastiest mongrels you’ve ever seen. These aren’t cuddly lapdogs or yipping dachshunds or happy little puppies with names like “Checkers.” No, these are ferocious attack dogs. 

In behavior strange even by Russian macho standards, Putin seems to maintain these creatures as extensions of his manliness, and he measures unmanliness by those intimidated by his beasts. He has applied this beastly standard to several world leaders, including one of our own, President Barack Obama.

 

I first heard of this Putin–dog thing from a former student who went on to run a very successful international consulting firm, and whom I must leave nameless for reasons that will be obvious. I’ll call him “John.” 

He advises foreign governments, and has met prime ministers of Britain, India, the German chancellor, and others. 

One day in the summer of 2014, John went to Moscow for meetings with top Russian officials in the Kremlin...John was in a meeting with three other Americans and six or seven Russians. One of these Russians John had met in Washington several weeks prior. John was bewildered that this particular Russian had made a big deal about President Barack Obama’s dog, Bo, a friendly, playful creature that the Russian dismissed contemptuously as a wimpy and unmanly dog. He intimated that this made Obama wimpy and unmanly... 

Barrack Hussein Obama mmm mmm mmm is wimpy and unmanly, dog or not. ...

He asked John repeatedly, incredulously why this president would have such a weak and unimpressive dog. John said he really didn’t know, didn’t think it was a big deal, and tried to move on. 

...Circle back to the summer meeting in Moscow, at the Kremlin...John was taken aback at the sight of none other than Vladimir Putin himself suddenly darkening the room...Putin walked up to John, and the Americans and said to them in his expressionless voice, “Come with me, I want to show you something.” John didn’t need to wait for the translation. He told his colleagues, “Let’s go. He wants to show us something.”

 

...the grimacing Putin showed them roughly 10 of the fiercest-looking canines that John had ever seen. There were restrained in large cages. Putin then looked at the Americans and said simply and sternly, “This is what a real dog looks like. Tell your president.”

 

...There was a lot of meaning in this — about Russians, about Putin, and about Putin’s views of his lesser adversaries...

 

Not surprising. Putin wasn't impreseed with Obama, or many in the west during his years. Another example

 

“I understand why he has to do this,” said Angela Merkel in 2007, referring to Vladimir Putin, “to prove he’s a man. He’s afraid of his own weakness. Russia has nothing, no successful politics or economy. All they have is this.”

 

Wow. Now there’s a statement. What could have possibly prompted such a harsh, bitter assessment by one major world leader against another?

 

In more than one of their meetings, Vladimir Putin brought in his dogs to saunter and sniff at Merkel, who is terribly afraid of dogs, and Putin knows it. One incident in Sochi in 2007 was recalled in a profile of Merkel in the New Yorker. In this case, the dog was reportedly Putin’s black lab, Koni...

I had no question of Mr. Putin's masculinity issues before this article. Then again, he also has at his disposal over 4,000 nuclear weapons. I think that would give me a buzz. But he will make you uncomfortable and if you object, tell you where you can go, deal with it. Remember one of his predecessor's was Joe Stalin. This is the big game and the big dogs play here.