I hurt my back again (some people suck edition)

[drwex]

Driving home last night from work I noticed a small furry dog in the road. At least other people slowed down but the dog seemed to have no fear of the cars and was going to be roadkill soon, I feared.

So I pulled over to the side of the road, put on my flashers and after the car behind me stopped I tried to catch it. Even though it seemed friendly (and was wearing an obvious collar and dog coat-thing) it didn't want to get within arm's reach. Instead it ran to a house a couple doors up the street, so I followed.

Rang the bell - that house also had a yappy dog and the woman inside seemed suspicious of the leather-coated bearded stranger on her front porch. I yelled that there seemed to be a dog on her yard that seemed to think it lived there and she came out. She told me the dog belonged to the people in the house across the street. Said people were piling in their car and about to drive away so I hurried over to them while she managed to corral the yapping critter. I stopped them from leaving and she brought the dog over.

On the way back she confided that the dog gets loose all the time and is often in her yard. She's called the police, called animal control multiple times. Nothing seems to be done. And on the walk back to my car I slipped on sidewalk ice and re-wrenched my back. Fooey. Spent much of last night with the heating pad on it and it's mostly OK today. Still, fooey.

I don't get it. How can you leave the house without knowing where your dog is? How can you take the care to get a collar and tag and put a coat on the dog so it stays warm, and not be careful that it's leashed or penned properly? Some people suck.

Comments

[sweetmmeblue.livejournal.com]

This is hard for me, and why I made the suggestion I did last night. My dog got hit by a car cause the ex was one of these people.

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

Yep. Some people suck. And yet, you took the time and effort to help out this little doggie.

I'm sorry about your back; I'm sure that you're thinking that no good deed goes unpunished. And if I believed in a Just Universe, I'd say that you were racking up brownie points in heaven or something by rescuing the dog. Either that or you deserved to hurt your back, somehow.

But instead, I'll just give the dog a voice and thank you for being there last night. He's lucky that there are people like you in the world, along with the people like his owners.

[drwex]

Aww, thanks hon. He seemed like a sweet dog, if you like that sort of thing.

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

Some people suck, but some people are such public-spirited humanitarians that they stop their cars, try to catch stray dogs, talk to suspicious strangers, and do their best for a dog they've never even seen before. Maybe the sucky people ruined your day, but your kindness has made the day of everyone who reads this.

I hope your back feels better soon.

[drwex]

Thank you for the kind words. I didn't intend to post the story in order to get pats on the back, but I appreciate it.

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

I know you didn't post your story to get pats on the back. I don't usually post the nice things that I do, either. But maybe we should start posting the nice things that we do -- maybe we should all start -- as a way of counteracting the news, which is almost exclusively about the bad things that people do. Reading the news is depressing and tends to make people overestimate how evil their fellow humans are; counteracting that would be a very good thing.

[sariel-t.livejournal.com]

Frustrating people are frustrating.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

I am sorry about your back. You are a good person and did the right thing.