im crying
Do you know how many dogs I’ve met that get scared or anxious around men because in their previous home men hit them? A lot, and they are very protective of the women who have adopted them now.
Men who are violent towards women are often violent towards animals as well. They think we’re all chattel. If a man wants you to choose between your dog or cat or him, dump the guy. Those animals will love you for the rest of your life, loyal and true.
Actually, I have something to add.
The other day I saw a story where a woman was asking why her dogs had suddenly started growling at her boyfriend whenever he was in the same room as her son.
And my immediate thought was ‘that boyfriend has hurt the kid somehow.’
Spoilers: that was exactly the case.
Trust ur dogs when they say something is off.
The first time my sister came to visit, via plane, after I got my dog, pupper growled at her and wouldn’t go near her for the first day. Next visit was by car (two day drive)and pupper LOVED my sister. They snuggled and played and none of us could figure out why the change. We thought maybe the scent of my sisters cat had lingered on her clothes, making that first visit a rough one. Whereas when she came by car, the scent had had time to wear off. Well that was partially true…
Fast forward about six months when I went north to visit my family. My sister walked into my parents’ house and pupper ran to greet my sister. Stopped dead in her tracks and started growling and barking. Hackles raised, full protection mode. My sisters husband had just walked in behind her.
My precious puppy wanted NOTHING to do with him. She barked, growled, ran away, and sat between him and my sister. Y’all my dog had spent maybe a weekend a half around my sister but protected her like this was her flesh and blood.
Eventually, my sister filed for divorce on grounds of “Extreme and repeated mental, emotional, and sexual abuse.” Divorce was final in less than a month because her claims were substantiated.
Trust the dog, honey. They KNOW.
I’ve never owned dogs, but I used to work with horses (which are a lot like big dogs).
There was this one horse I worked with named Tonto. He was a doll. He followed me like a puppy, snuck treats out of my pocket, he was the sweetest thing. We were practically inseparable.
A guy I was considering dating came to visit me one day, and Tonto wanted NOTHING to do with him. Normally well behaved, he shoved himself between us and would NOT let this guy near me. He was stomping, acting really aggressive, and tried to bite the guy. This horse was practically dragging me back toward the barn. At that moment, despite being like, 17, I knew something was up, and ultimately things didn’t pan out for guy and me.
A year later I found out he had lied about his age (he said he was 18 but he was actually 27) he was arrested for sexually assaulting an 11 year old girl.
TRUST THE ANIMALS.
ALWAYS REBLOG! ALWAYS
Guys this goes for cats as well. I sometimes foster rescue animals and this one time I worked with a cat named Peach. She came from an abusive hone where she was actually pregnant and her owner hit and kicked her so bad that she had a miscarriage. It took me weeks to get her to come out from under my bed. Fast forward a couple months and my cousin Sarah has a new boyfriend while she’s staying with me. Peach had immediately hissed and ran away from him when he came to visit at first we thought that it was simply because she didn’t trust men given her background but when she immediately warmed up to my boyfriend at the time I knew something was off. Anytime my cousin had her boyfriend over Peach would protectively wedge her self between them and went so far as to scratch Sarah’s boyfriend when he was yelling at her. Fast forward another few months again and Sarah comes home with a black eye, a sprained wrist and a court date to get a restraining order.
TRUST YOUR PETS. THEY KNOW BEST.
The only time something like this happened to me was when I was taking my dog (big black lab mix who cried when she found a hurt bird and took it to my mum to ‘fix’) out at night, which isn’t unusual. There was a… Person. I couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a woman. It was dark, okay? And they were walking not even that close to me but apparently too close for comfort for my 65lbs of cuddling that is Sora. I had her on one of those long retractable leashes and as soon as this person came close to me (as in, within 20m) she just about flipped, ran at them barking and growling with her hackles raised to the sky.
She never does this. She never even barks. She’s 14 years old an I can count the times I heard her growl on one hand. The person ran off as fast as they could and I was left there stupefied with a dog who was very proud of herself and no idea what just happened. The entire encounter took maybe a minute if that. To this day nothing similar has ever happened again. My dog has never been aggressive to any other person before or since. I have no idea what that person would have done or if they would have done something, but I’m very grateful for my big black dog and her ability to chase away potential creeps.
FantasyBoudicca 