When it is hard to be nice (and you have to)
Humans are such individuals with different thoughts about different things. Sometimes when you meet a person who is so opposite of you, it is very hard to bite your tongue (mine stays bloody quite alot) and just keep going about your daily business.
Meeting people who are animal lovers offers the same kind of challenge because everyone is an expert. Whether they have owned one pet, or a dozen, many people will not listen to what you are trying to explain to them. Then are dismayed several weeks later when the pet they adopted is exhibiting a behavior they have never seen before. Some are in a panic because they don't know what to do.
I remember a young man several years ago who came looking for a dog. He met several and the dog he chose had not been neutered. I explained to him the animal would be fixed before he could take him home. His response was, "Why on earth would you want to maim this beautiful animal that way? If you plan on cutting his balls off, I don't want him."
Of course, the hair went up on the back of my neck but I calmly explained to him the reasons shelter animals are spayed/neutered before leaving the shelter, the first of which it is Florida state law. I also explained to him about the other 50 odd dogs on the adoption floor who were there because an irresponsible owner had not taken care of fixing their own animals. They were not wanted and sat in a kennel, day after day, waiting for someone to want them.
What I really wanted to do was shake this young man's body until his teeth rattled and maybe some common sense would then have space in his gray matter to reside.
The young man ended up leaving without adopting a dog and the dog ended up finding a new home with another couple.
I wonder if young people who feel this way were required to volunteer at a shelter and see the numbers of unwanted animals who pass through the door because of irresponsible owners or backyard breeders would help this misconception?
Maybe, but maybe not. I guess the tongue will stay bloody a little longer.
Meeting people who are animal lovers offers the same kind of challenge because everyone is an expert. Whether they have owned one pet, or a dozen, many people will not listen to what you are trying to explain to them. Then are dismayed several weeks later when the pet they adopted is exhibiting a behavior they have never seen before. Some are in a panic because they don't know what to do.
I remember a young man several years ago who came looking for a dog. He met several and the dog he chose had not been neutered. I explained to him the animal would be fixed before he could take him home. His response was, "Why on earth would you want to maim this beautiful animal that way? If you plan on cutting his balls off, I don't want him."
Of course, the hair went up on the back of my neck but I calmly explained to him the reasons shelter animals are spayed/neutered before leaving the shelter, the first of which it is Florida state law. I also explained to him about the other 50 odd dogs on the adoption floor who were there because an irresponsible owner had not taken care of fixing their own animals. They were not wanted and sat in a kennel, day after day, waiting for someone to want them.
What I really wanted to do was shake this young man's body until his teeth rattled and maybe some common sense would then have space in his gray matter to reside.
The young man ended up leaving without adopting a dog and the dog ended up finding a new home with another couple.
I wonder if young people who feel this way were required to volunteer at a shelter and see the numbers of unwanted animals who pass through the door because of irresponsible owners or backyard breeders would help this misconception?
Maybe, but maybe not. I guess the tongue will stay bloody a little longer.
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