A friend of mine recently went through a traumatic experience with her beloved German Shepherd. She arrived home to find that he could barely walk and rushed him to the vet. The poor dog had torn the ACL in his back leg and needed surgery asap to fix it, and as if that wasn't enough, the other leg will also need to be operated on. He has had issues with his legs since she first got him, but she will still do anything to give him the best life because he means the world to her.
Knowing the financial knock she was in for (around $15,000), a family member very kindly set up a Go Fund Me campaign to help her, something she knew nothing about until it was done.
And sadly, this brought out the torches and pitch forks. She was heavily criticized for having the Go Fund Me set up even though she had no prior knowledge of it, and even worse was attacked by various people in the dog community because she had not taken out pet insurance knowing full well that owning large breed dogs can be very expensive.
She tried to explain her side of the story and made it clear that she had never had the intention of asking for money and was going to arrange a loan instead. She also explained that pet insurance was never an option as this particular dog had pre-existing issues that precluded him from being covered.
And then, when she stepped away from those toxic people and chose to look after her own sanity, she received backlash yet again.
The combination of these factors ultimately led to her breaking down and it took quite a while for her to recover and return to being the wonderful lady that she is.
At the end of the day, she did everything she could and her dog is doing really well now. Where she could, she even contributed to other dog owner's campaigns when they needed help because she didn't want them to go through what she did.
And it was the small acts of kindess and encouraging words from friends and followers that helped my friend deal with everything that happened.
All of this begs the question: why do people find it necessary to be so mean and just attack and judge other people without even taking time to understand the whole story?
So before any of us react to a situation, why don't we just take a moment to step back and think about whether your reaction to a situation like this is fair or judgemental.
All I ask is if you find that you can't be kind, nice or encouraging in another person's difficult situation, then please just shut up.
Instead, rather choose kindness every time. A kind thought, a kind word or even just words of support and encouragement will always make each day a good one for you and them.
As you go about your day, smile at another person, say something nice to someone and where you can, be kind. The world will become a wonderful place for all of us.
