Soft hair and a velvet tongue; I want to give you what you give to me

[lizblackdog]

*sigh* Remember my idiot neighbours with the continually-straying unfixed Staffie-mix puppything, the four Jack Russells, and not enough brains to use leashes on the main road?

http://lizblackdog.livejournal.com/232185.html#cutid1

http://lizblackdog.livejournal.com/241422.html

http://lizblackdog.livejournal.com/265376.html

I walked past their house today, and a couple of the kids were playing in the front garden. I called out from a distance to make sure none of the dogs were loose, and the kid said: "Oh, we don't have the dogs any more, Mum got rid of them."

"Why?" I asked.

"She's got a new job and doesn't have time to look after them any more"

I honestly don't know what to think. The dogs might very well be better off because she was a shitty pet owner; but it's so unutterably depressing to hear the words "got rid of" in connection with a living, feeling creature.

Part of me wants to wonder what she did with them; most of me would be happier not knowing.

Comments

[huntingdon.livejournal.com]

Be very suspicious if she sets up a Chinese takeaway :(

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

I think that'd be more effort than she wants to spend on her dogs...

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

oh goodness. what a shame. :(

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'll ever understand this. Dogs are a massive amount of responsibility and commitment and inconvenience and quite often a pain in the arse - so why the fuck do people get them who don't really want them?

people are so fucking stupid.

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

honestly, i can't even comprehend it.

[realbabaganoosh.livejournal.com]

Word. :(

[kyra-neko-rei.livejournal.com]

Because they see a cute puppy and think "OMG cuteness and petting and playing fetch and cuteness!" and not "vet bills and training and drool and pet hair and time and effort and toilet training and it doesn't fucking come with an on/off switch or conveniently pop out of existence when we're done playing with it for the day" and they get the dog and react to all the less-pleasant and maintenence-related aspects of dog-ownership with "where the fuck did all this come from?"

Yes. People are fucking stupid.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's it exactly - the cute factor makes people confuse live animals with stuffed toys. Arrrrggh!

[revolution-grrl.livejournal.com]

Ew. "[G]ot rid of them" is so ugly. Hopefully she gave them to some other family, or better, took them to a proper shelter (of the non-killing variety, I mean). *shivers in disgust* The chances are good that they are better off, and yet, if they aren't, the chances are that they may be worse off still... Ick. People suck.

I was out with my dogs this afternoon, and a girl stopped and started cooing at them and trying to pet them. Duncan was cowering behind me, because he's scared anyway, and then she was there looming over him, and pursuing him when he backed away. I explained that he'd been abused and so was scared, but that the other one had also been abused, and had come out of his experience with the exact opposite approach to people. She looked confused at all this "abuse" talk, so I explained that I did a lot of dog rescue. She was a totally new concept to her, and she asked a lot of questions, saying she actually wanted to get a dog, a little tiny one, and wanting to know how much I "charge" for the dogs I rescue.

I know I don't know her, and that it's wrong to assume that because someone doesn't know how rescue works she won't be a good dog companion and care-giver. I know that the odd look on her face when I mentioned always making sure they're fixed and inoculated before I adopted them out didn't necessarily mean that it might occur to her to have a dog without those things. But still, I came back into the building thinking that I would never ever want to give a little helpless dog into her hands.

Does that make me a rescue snob, do you think?

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

Rescues need to be snobs, at least up to a point. No point rescuing them just to pass them on to someone who doesn't know what they're doing.

[entorien.livejournal.com]

Amen to that.

This makes me think of what happened when I was about 14 years old...

I had grown up with a beautiful black Labrador, Bramble. He was the closest thing I had to a sibling. We played together all the time, he would guard me if there were any strangers nearby, I loved him to bits.

When my parents started having problems, just before they split up for good, my Mum suddenly had Bramble taken to the vet and put to sleep...

It was me and my Dad who loved and looked after him, and there was nothing wrong with Bramble, but that didn't stop her.

It's no wonder we don't get on at times. Although, my Dad was worse when he got a dog, but I'll leave that for another time.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

What a horrible thing to do :(

*loves*

[james-the-evil1.livejournal.com]

My, what a great lesson to her kids that was.
Not to mention if I was a young child and mom said "We're getting rid of the dogs, they're too much work" I'd start worrying that I was next.

[purplewaxhand.livejournal.com]

My dad got rid of my dog while I was visiting my grandparents and my mom was visiting her parents. He was the one who went out and bought him for me too! I came home to find he had just given him to some random stranger who came up and talked to my dad outside.