denial isn't just a river
Yesterday we received what we think is a Vireo. Tiny thing, only 13 grams. She had a broken wing, was bleeding from a wound at the site of the break and was in extreme shock. While we were cleaning the wound and figuring the dosage rate for the antibiotic, the lady explained that her four dogs had found the bird in the yard and decided to play tug of war with it. Then with her very next breath, she firmly insisted that her dogs would never hurt anything.
Time unto infinity now, people have come to us with gravely injured animals - bunnies oozing intestines, birds ripped to shreds with their feathers hanging by nothing more than bloody strips of flesh - and their owners swear up and down that little Fifi would never do that. I hold up the animal and say, "But it did." And they come right back with, "Not MY dog!" (or cat.) Huh?
Wny is that?
I mean, WE know why animals do what they do. Dogs are given furry toys that squeak which they proceed to shake and chew and maul until their stuffings fall out. In fact, some dogs have been bred to do that very thing. Cats are natural born killers. That's literally what they do. (Check out this link: www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/releases/110314.html for the gruesome facts.) So it comes as no shock to us that someone's pet could commit mayhem. We don't crank on them for it. (I only crank when people just shrug and let them do it.) But to stand there with the bleeding evidence literally in their own hands and deny all the way back to their cars that Fifi was even capable of hurting something, let alone did...seriously?
I'm guessing that there must be some comfort gained by the illusion that their pets are the exception, but to me, that's all it is. Don't get me wrong, I've met a few saintly pets who wouldn't hurt a fly, but not enough of them to trust that when temptation offered, they wouldn't go for it. I so much prefer people who just own up to the reality that anything can kill. Even people, given sufficient motivation. Any policeman could tell you that.
As for the little bird, she's doing better today. And for the record: she squeaks. A lot.
