Things that shouldn’t surprise me
For all of my kvetching and moaning and mumbling about how some people are just rotten, the truth of the matter is that I generally have a pretty optimistic view of people. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, to assume their intentions are good, that they want what is best and trust me the way I trust them.
I still hold that this is generally the case. I don’t know if I am willfully obtuse or just pigheadedly determined to look for the best so I don’t renounce my membership to the human race in order to run wild with the dogs out on the prairie. I accept that this means I get burned on a regular basis, since some people just do horrible things.
So when a client calls and says he came home and found his dog chewing on a hot dog in the backyard, except he didn’t give his dog a hot dog, it was with a bit of perplexed concern that we agreed that he should bring the dog in, just to be safe.
Despite all signs to the contrary, I still hoped this was just some wayward hotdog-toting patron benefactor of neighborhood dogs who happened to wander by on his way to the shelter. Of course, the dog ended up vomiting up a nice green chunk of rat bait in addition to the hot dog, and my faith in humanity was once again plunked into the toilet. Nice.
It was luck, and nothing more, that the owner happened to catch the dog in the act of eating the hot dog to trigger his alarm. Geez, had we been talking Brody (or most dogs I know!), the window of opportunity would have been less than 5 seconds. And that is what makes rat bait so malicious- the effects are not seen that instant. It takes some time. And by then, it might be too late.
Fortunately, in this case the dog will be OK. The owner is obviously shaken. I am just angry and sad, and perhaps wondering what sort of karma that kind of action brings.
