On my walk to work this morning in Dhaka, I passed a young beggar boy whose right arm and leg both ended in a stump. He was painstakingly opening a candy wrapper. As I paused to glance at him, one of my dogs came to a full stop in order to pee on the wheel of a new, expensive car. There may be some justice in the accusation that I have chosen to adopt two dogs and to consider them as children in a country where so many people could use my help, and I would never want to attribute high moral reasoning to canines. But one thing seems clear: there is no question in my dogs’ minds which of those two (car vs. beggar) is more valuable; an appraisal that is, alas, far from universal.