I am feeling sad because my little old dog Lady is getting old and a bit forgetful. She has started doing a bit of wee on the kitchen floor is she gets a bit stressed or is left on her own for long.
Whilst out yesterday I walked past a parked car and saw a dog's nose peeping out from the boot from under the black cover and thought with horror why would someone shut their dog up in the dark like that. S/he didn't appear distressed at the time and my mind just went into all kinds of reasons why someone would do that. Maybe the dog got worked up if someone went near the car or something like that? But it disturbed me and of late I have become much more distressed about how people treat their pets.
Nowadays we don't leave Lady on her own for more than three hour stretches because she leaks onto the kitchen floor, the vet assures us there is no particular reason for this, she is a very fit old girl. I can only assume that she is confused when we are not around. I even get up at about 5am to let her out so that she doesn't leak mainly because she looks so ashamed.
For most of my life I have projected some of my emotions onto my dogs all my early abondonment issues and I have many, even though I spent x number of years in therapy these emotions seem to be emerging again. Does one ever really cure the past, I think not, we only learn to live with it more easily.
The facts are that dogs are pack animals and when left they are anxious it's a proven fact, it seems they worry about being seperated from their pack and they worry about the other members when they are out of sight. More and more research has shown that dogs do feel similar emotions to humans, fear, anger and sadness. Every time I witness some kind of thoughtlessness toward a pet then I have to ask myself why. Or is it me being over the top?
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