‘Oh my god, that woman just kicked her dog!!’ A woman walking a dog on the opposite side of the track about 20 metres away from me was talking on the phone telling the other person on the phone how this awful person abused a dog.
The woman who (she thought) kicked her dog was me. Well it might have appeared that way, but that’s not what happened. You see, my dog, Lush, and I walk 6kms or so every day along the river. Despite my best efforts, this little puppy gets too excited when she sees other dogs and pulls on her leash so much so that I often get worried about her being choked. In order to avoid strangulation, I sometimes balance on one foot and hold her back by hooking the other foot around in front of her. This also distracts her from running after the other dog. So that was what the ‘kick’ was.
Now, for the other woman, I’m a low down dog kicker. Clearly, at first, I was annoyed by her overreaction and her judgement. Not that I would worry about ever meeting her one day and being remembered as the ‘animal abuser’. Having said that, with Perth being so small, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility entirely.
We all know the axiom, there are always two sides to a story. It made me wonder how many times I have judged other people, rightly or wrongly, for their actions. After being judged by some random person for doing absolutely nothing wrong, I reflected on my past actions and I repented for the judgements I had made against unsuspecting individuals, and I paid particular attention on the way back home not to ‘appear abusive’ to my dog.
P.S. Some mobile pics from the walk with the dog.
