Effort put in a dog
Adopting or taking responsibility of a second-hand dog is effort. Especially if this second dog has a difficult past or bad experiences or was not in the right environment in order to be just the dog that he was meant to be. It's sort of your passion, your leisure time occupation or part-time job. For you that dog is not just a dog. No! It's more than this! It's a time of your life that meant sweat, time, money and tricky situations, embarrassing moments, long explanations and your mind wrapped around how to get that dog to the dog it was meant to be. Random people on the street don't see this. People you start sharing moments of your life as friends or flat mates don't see this. People don't get that for you it's more than an ordinary dog. For them, it's just a beautiful animal that they can't keep their hands off. Pets have the power to instantly touch on human instincts to pet a fluffy walking teddy bear. Animals make people forget their normal shyness or ignorance towards strangers on the street. They don't see the other end of the leash. They want to get instant love from this very animal in front of them. That animal that does not know them. That does not have any connection with them and that is supposed to function in this human world. Meaning give endless love to everybody who feels the urge to cuddle the dog. Public property, because...because...because... I don't know why, actually. All my life I've admired dogs and thought they are amazing creatures, but never had this urge of touching dogs I don't know. Simply out of respect for the animal and maybe the ability of understanding if an animal is interested or not getting in touch. A lot of people are not able to see this. Why? Not used to animals? Or maybe in general not able to get out of their skin and put oneself in an other position? Too much ego? 'I want to touch this animal, therefore I will'? No boundaries in their life? No one ever told them, don't touch animals you don't know? Not even considering illnesses or getting bidden? Personally for me, seeing all these people behaving impolite and without respect makes me sad. Not only their ignorance annoys me, but as well their egoistic approach or mindset of "standing above the animal and forcing their idea on another living being". 'I like to touch it, so it must like it.' It does not even occur to them, that the dog does not want to interact with that person. I would go even that far and say that it tells you something about their education and what respect means within their family from their parents and how much parents care about their child's safety as well, sadly. So much work to do.