I’ve got an elderly cat that became my responsibility through… circumstances.
He’s a lot of work. He has zero personality or charisma. Worst of all, he harasses me for wet food his whole waking existence. Food motivated is not the word, it’s the only thing he knows, or cares about.
I’m not going to be sad when he dies.
Sad story time…
My brother brought home a young pitbull he found abandoned on the side of a motorway. The most likely theory was that it came from a traveler community and was abandoned because it wasn’t good enough at dog fighting. It was still young when we got it, kind of an adolescent.
That dog was nervous around all people, aggressive towards other animals (especially other dogs). But in particular he fucking HATED all teenage boys, probably because of the abuse he had suffered. And guess what I was at that time! Fun times!
I tried hard to befriend him, but he was so psychologically fucked in the head that it was a futile exercise. Every day I’d get home from high school and he would be snarling and bearing its teeth at me and quivering with rage/fear as soon as I walked through the door. I would say hi and he would get even more aggressive, and start following me around. So I took to ignoring him as much as possible. But even then he still attacked me several times. I figured out ways of reducing the damage and fending him off, but it was still not good.
I kept being my parents to get rid of him. Eventually they did, like after two fucking years of going through that miserable routine.
And yeah I did kind of hate that dog because he made my life very difficult. But I also felt really bad for him. He was screwed from birth and so psychologically scarred that he never stood a chance. We’re sure the shelter ended up putting him down because he was so aggressive and anti-social.
Fuck animal abusers!
Your family gave that dog a second chance at life for a long time. Someone just permanently damaged him before you guys met each other. Even if he never became a friend, you still gave him more moments of comfort and safety than he would have seen had you guys not taken him in. It’s sad he couldn’t recover, but if giving him up was the end of his story, you still gave him all you could before that.
Working in animal rescue, I think a lot about animals that can’t be saved, and sometimes a calm and peaceful end isn’t the worst outcome. You probably know all this, as your story makes you seem very compassionate, but just in case, you shouldn’t feel guilty. You guys went above and beyond what most would have done for that poor dog. ❤️
Thanks. That perspective helps.