Thursday, June 30, 2016

Is it Asking Too Much

Earlier this week an event occurred in the house. Although I didn't witness it, I automatically blamed it on the cat. With no direct evidence, I put certain behaviors and past incidents together and came to the conclusion that he had to be the culprit. Tonight a similar event occurred and there was no doubt the cat didn't do it. When I added 2 and 2 together, and saw the evidence, it had to be the dog. I scolded Walter for being a dumb head and apologized to the cat for wrongly accusing him of something he did not do. He was so gracious in accepting my apology. As I headed back upstairs, I thought to myself that surely I wasn't the only person in history to apologize to an animal. If that is true, and others do apologize to their furry friends when we jump to conclusions, shouldn't we be willing to apologize to non-furry friends when we falsely accuse them of something, or treat them in a harsh manner?  Oddly enough, you rarely hear of people apologizing to others, myself included. I think we are so shackled by pride and self-righteousness that we can't simply bring ourselves to say..... "I over reacted, please forgive me" or "I was wrong, please forgive me." A few years ago, one of my kids told me that I had a hard time apologizing to them. Since then, I have made a conscious effort to be more aware when I have crossed a boundary (assuming it's a boundary I know I've crossed), and have been more forthcoming with a needed apology. Just a little food for thought.... How quick are you to apologize? If people can be kind to pets, shouldn't they have the capability of being kind to people.... Or is that just asking too much?

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