People Suck

Yesterday I was running late for dropping off Piccolo to be groomed. I called my friend S, who grooms her, to let her know. "Something horrible happened this morning," she said. When I got there, she told me about a client of hers, an man with autism who is alone in this world except for his dog. They arrived early for the dog's appointment that morning. He checked in at the animal hospital that S works out of, and they told him he could wait in their lobby for her. He didn't hear that, and took his dog out. The little dog took one step off the curb, and was killed by a car that was speeding to make it through the traffic light, and didn't look back. The man was devastated. "What am I going to do now?" he sobbed as he watched his dog die. The irony is that it happened in front of an animal hospital, so the staff also got to witness the horror.

I'm fortunate. I've had three pets die, but all from illness or old age, not because of some one's cruel actions. The way to hurt a pet lover the most is to harm their pet. It seems to me that there's a rash of people I've encountered who seem to have no awareness of the presence of any one else in the world. More than anything else, I despise that attitude that they are the center of the universe. Like the knitter who sent me the nasty e-mails, or the woman who defiled my exhibit space at the OOAK with her baby's excrement. Certainly, though nothing as horrifying as what happened to that poor man yesterday. But, I suppose that driver never gave another thought about killing an innocent creature, or the devastation that resulted. The driver made it to work, breakfast, or to the mall on time. Or, just made it to the next red light before anyone else, which I have never understood. The hell with everyone else.

This is one of the reasons I love the Man. I told him this story, and he was horrified as well. But, he says I read too much into this. He doesn't think that most people think only of themselves, and he believes that what happened to the little dog was just an unfortunate accident. He thinks perhaps the driver had no idea that he/she had even hit the little dog. I was upset all day yesterday over this event. Which had an odd ending. Apparently, after the man had composed himself, he trotted off the the pet store, and purchased another dog, the same breed as the one who was killed, and gave the new dog the same name. The new dog has a grooming appointment next week. I told the Man this part of the story, and he proclaimed the dog owner to be "a man of action!"

The yarn is Sock Hop, hand spun superwash from Crown Mountain Farms. I was on a waiting list for this, and was advised not to blog about this before the yarn became available, so I wouldn't be disappointed. The colors, left to right, are Wild Thing, Love Me Tender, and Satisfaction. I've washed and wound a hank of the Love Me Tender, and like the result I get with a size 2 needle. I'm still working on the right stitch pattern to show the hand spun quality of the yarn.