Life — April 14, 1921 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Oh, It's Great When Your Dreams Come True!" This Robert Dickey cartoon illustrates children's fantasies about finding and keeping stray dogs. The top panel shows three trash cans with dogs searching for food—establishing the grim reality of stray animals. Below, three thought-bubbles reveal children's hopeful imaginings: finding a dog ("who's here?"), playing together ("yum-m, yum!!"), and dreaming peacefully ("ah, do not wake me, let me dream again"). The final panel shows a child actually keeping a dog, with text reading "and mother says I may keep you"—the dream realized. The satire gently mocks both children's naive optimism about strays and perhaps parental indulgence. It captures early 20th-century attitudes toward urban stray animals and childhood desires, presented with sentimental humor rather than sharp critique.