To The Terrible Person Who Owned My Dog Before I Adopted Her
I wish I could meet you. I’d find great satisfaction in confronting you directly for the abuse you inflicted upon her. You’d feel guilty, I hope. And uncomfortable and dirty. There’s no denying that you should take responsibility for the horrors you’ve done, to the neglect you so carelessly imposed. How can you justify any of it? Would you even try to explain yourself?
It’s true: I don’t know you. I don’t know your story. I do know, however, that I could never like or respect you. At times, I feel like I might hate you. That sentiment grows as my love for her increases.
She’s great, really – loving, smart, obedient. You, on the contrary, are trash. And yet she was the one tossed to the curb, discarded like an old pair of shoes. I will never understand how, having looked into her sweet, innocent eyes, you were able to treat her as you did.
When I adopted her, she was just a few months old and yet – in that short amount of time – she had developed so many fears, so many insecurities. She was – and still is – incredibly timid, incredibly reluctant to put her trust in humans. Who can blame her? I attribute these qualities to your conduct, although I’ll never know the specifics regarding your ownership.
Ticks lingered in her flesh and she needed to be treated immediately for worms. She had been living outside and her body appeared frail – obviously underfed.
On her drop-off form, the paper you filled out when you abandoned her at the shelter, you wrote that she was “too much to handle.” How could she have been such a burden, though, when you left her outdoors and barely provided nourishment? Are you the laziest person on the planet? Or are you just heartless?
Despite this hostility, despite my utter disgust with your character, I have to thank you. Thank you for taking her to shelter when you did, for liberating her before it was too late. Your timing was perfect, and I can’t deny you played a part in me finding her. I’m grateful to have her in my life – so thanks, I guess, for being such a terrible person. And may your hands be forever freed of animals.