On Saturday, a dog went missing. This wasn’t the dog of a friend of mine. It was the dog of friends of a friend of mine. I had hung out a few times with the owners and with Meatball, their big, sweet, nervous boy.
Meatball wouldn’t let strangers touch him. He was so scared of them. The one time I went to his house—the first time I met him—I fell in love with him, naturally, and spent 45 minutes on the kitchen floor, inching myself closer, not looking him in the eye. Eventually, he let me stroke his chest, and I just stayed there on the tile, petting him, for the rest of the party.
My friend sent me a text saying he was missing on Saturday. I don’t know how it happened. On Sunday night, I posted on Facebook for Durhamites to keep an eye out for him, and a friend that I was IMing with said somebody else had just posted that he was hit by a car.
And I fucking fell apart. I sat down on the couch between Violet and Redford and just sobbed. I thought about how scared he must have been when he was lost and how sad his owners must be, and I cried and cried.
I don’t know if this is normal. I don’t know if normal people get this torn up about other people’s dogs.
I guess that doesn’t matter. He’s dead, and I’m sad.
Aw, shit. I didn’t know Meatball or his people, but I saw and reposted the Facebook post about him since he was lost nearish our neighborhood and was really hopeful that he would be found quickly. Damn it. I’m so sad for his owners and everyone who loved him. We’re hugging our animals extra tonight.
I don’t think you are weird at all for being sad. You’re just an animal lover and a compassionate person, and I wish there were more of those in this world.
I think it’s in the name. I’m a self proclaimed baller, and it has NOTHING to do with sports.
Have you seen this 2012 video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJJ_AM5C4ns&feature=share)? It’s a bit long but I think it’s so worth watching. It talks about the “grief muscle” – I think I have a REALLY strong grief muscle. Sounds like you do too! Be easy with yourself, Amy! It’s okay to BE.
I’m more much upset when dogs are hurt than when people are hurt, and I’ve no problem with that. You shouldn’t either. Dogs are very often worthy of love without qualification – I don’t know too many people like that…
Yourself excepted of course…
not weird at all.
makes you amy.
i’m with Dan. much more upset about animals being hurt. and i absolutely get upset when someone else’s dog is hurt or killed or just sick. we animal people, we have bond. we love these little creatures like children. that’s hard for non animal people to understand. i very often worry about what would happen if someone broke into my house. i don’t give a shit about my stuff but if anyone ever touched my babies i would cut them.
you are not alone. i would have cried too.