Yesterday, we put up this Boston Terrier decal on the back door. Our local volunteer fire department always asks dog owners to put up stickers or decals so they will know a dog is inside if there’s a fire, and that makes good sense.

But mostly, we loved the colors of the decal, we love bright colors around here, especially in the Dark Days.

I have never been much into dog decals, as with so many dog things, they seem to be about the people, not the dogs.

A few months ago, I saw a decal on the back of an SUV that read: “Caution: Therapy Dog On Board,” and I wondered about it. Was the driver saying people should be careful about plowing into a therapy dog, but it was okay to crash into any other kind of dog?

I also see many decals on bumper stickers that read “Caution: Rescue Dog On Board.” Since the dog doesn’t really care what bumper stickers say on his car, the decal must be about the person driving, and about what he or she wants you to know: that they have rescued a dog.

We exploit our dogs in all kinds of ways, I exploit mine by taking a lot of photos of them and putting them up on my blog. I justify it in all kinds of ways, and it works and I love them and I’m glad to do it, but I don’t delude myself as to my motives.

Nor do I fool anyone.

I would put a decal on my car that says “Caution: Windbag On Board,” but then it would be almost certain someone would run me off the road.

Sometimes, I see therapy dogs gussed up with vests, signs and scarves and medals and badges that usually signify decorated veterans marching in a parade.

Sometimes I put the certified therapy plastic ID on Red, if we are going into a hospital or a new institution. I don’t get the vests and sweaters and stenciled declarations, they have never been required in any place I’ve been.

It’s sometimes required to put vests and labels on therapy dogs, but I sometimes get the feeling people just like the accessories and want everyone to know the dog is a therapy dog, just like every other dog I meet is abused, and their owners can’t wait to tell me.

Red and I go into hospitals all the time, and no one has ever even asked to see the plastic ID.

It’s like people telling me their dogs are abused. Lots of people, all the time. There is a lot of evidence showing that American dogs, like New York Carriage Horses, are among the best treated animals in the world.

But if you believe all of the people walking around saying their dogs are abused, you would think most people in this country acquire dogs to torture and starve them.

There isn’t all that much reliable research on the number of abused dogs in the United States, if you believe some of the animal rights people we all abuse our dogs just by owning them, let alone working with them. What research there is (see Domestic Dogs by James Serpell) suggests dogs are sometimes abused, but not nearly to the degree most people think.

No animal rights group ever got a dollar sent to them by arguing that dogs are unbelievably  well cared for in our country.

I sometimes brag about Red being a therapy dog, but mostly, I try to keep that in check. Red doesn’t care what he is called, and strangers don’t really need to know what kind of work Red does. I find most people just want to talk about their dogs anyway once I mention mine.

I was thinking of all this when we got this very colorful Boston Terrier decal in the mail the other day from our friend Kathleen Nohe. I will be honest, the first thing I thought was “wow, this will make a great photograph”, I am ruthless in that way.

I have never put up a dog decal on a window or a car, and if I put one up for Gus, then what about the two border collies here, Fate and Red, two wonderful dogs I love very much?

I think the aesthetic impulse won.

This is a cool decal, with wonderful colors. And it will please the volunteer fire department. And it is a bright new way to enter the house.

Boston Terriers make me smile. Border Collies make me proud. That’s not a good decal for me.

I could put up a decal on the car that says “Caution: Boston Terrier On Board: Border Collies Take Their Chances.”

Maybe I’ll just keep the Boston Terrier one.