There once was a certain man who owned two dogs. It was his habit to take each dog for a walk, but as he had but one leash, he would take first one, and upon his return, the other. With each dog he would go to the traffic light, cross the street, go to the park, and then return home.

On these two outings, it was the same master who took the two dogs. It was the same route, the same crossing, same park. It was also the same leash that led each dog. Yet something was very different.

The first dog hated the leash. When he saw it coming, he tensed up. He struggled and wrestled away when his master tried to put it on his neck. He backed under the bed, he whimpered, he growled. He hated that leash. He didn't want it on, because he knew how miserable and painful it was going to be.

And indeed it was.

After the leash was on, he master tried to get him to the door. He sat back on his haunches and set his weight against it as best he could, the leash pulling the collar hard into the back of his neck. Finally, however, he was pulled through the door and was outside - a nice place to be, he now remembered. There was the neighbor's cat across the street! Barking excitedly he took off like a greyhound - when suddenly and painfully the awful leash jerked him of his feet. He watched the cat disappear as his windpipe began to open up again. He really hated that leash. At the traffic light, he saw all sorts of cars and trucks going this way and that. He desperately wanted to chase, but the dreaded leash pulled harder and harder against his aching neck.

Finally arriving at the park, his master took him for a run, which he naturally found much to his preference. Forgetting his miseries, he paused to take a drink from the pond when a young boy came whizzing by on a bicycle. "Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark! Twaaang!! Yipe! THUD." His mood quickly darkened again as the boy on the bike pedaled farther and farther away.

After another episode or two it was time to leave, and the unwilling dog found himself dragged away from the park and back to the house.

Once home, the dreaded leash was finally removed and placed on the second dog's neck, who (to the first dog's dismay) seemed to accept it rather gladly. "How can that be?" he wondered. Even now, the first dog's neck was still in pain from the constant tension and pull of that miserable leash.

When the second dog returned - tail wagging - the first dog asked about it. "Don't you hate the leash? Doesn't it hurt your neck? Doesn't the strain make you miserable?"

"Hate the leash?" responded the second dog, apparently surprised by the question. "Why?"

"Because it won't allow you to go where you want to go, or do what you want to do. It's a constant and choking restraint, and its pulls so hard and tight. Doesn't the strain just make you miserable?"

"On the contrary," replied the second dog, "I find the leash most easy to bear. I do not find it tight at all, save on those few occassions when I (being a dog after all) start to do something foolish which might cause harm to myself or to someone else. At such times, my master gives but a tug, and I am reminded that my master knows best. One day I saw what happened when another dog ran out in traffic, and it made me very grateful for those times I've been restrained from doing the same. The one who gives me my leash is my master, a fact that I accepted willingly long ago when he found me astray and took me in. It is he who houses and feeds both you and me, and it is he who leads us in our walks, and guides us where we need to be. The leash is good for me, and I find it in general to be easy and light.

I do not understand why you find it such a constant and choking restraint, unless you have never resolved which which one is the master. If you find the leash such a pain in the neck, perhaps it is not the leash, but your neck that's too stiff."