How Do They Do It?

[Brunzara]

Just curious really. An example:

 

Somebody I work with who has say a GSD. One comes into the pound and I show them a picture and explain that if a rescue space isn't found the dog will be put to sleep on a certain date. They pull their bottom lip down, make a sad face and say awww and you just know that that dog will never enter their thoughts again.

 

Another example, I mention to somebody (a Staffie Cross owner this time) about the amnesty and about how many dogs have been handed in, seized, destroyed etc. and again their reaction is to pull a sad face and go along on their merry little way without a second thought about it.

 

Of course, I don't expect these people to do anything about these situations or to be like me and lie awake worrying at night about everything but how do they just switch off to it do you think?? I sometimes wish I could. Do you think they just don't think about it?? Or is it me, am I missing some sort of switch off mechanism in my brain

[eileenalana]

No, you are just a very thoughtful, sensitive, caring person

[cleos mum]

i no what you mean i hate that cos i always feel patronised even tho i no they are they are the lesser beings for being incapable of thinking about anything thats not in their face

[kats n greys]

 

I don't understand it either, I had a comment at work today that made me

 

If you find a switch let me know, I think I'd like one too.

[geniegembob]

I find a stick of dynamite stuck somewhere on switched off party helps!

[Alibullie]

To some people dogs are just animals, but to people like us they are so much more, they are our best friends the "people" we think about all the time the "people" we worry about, love, and care for, I can honestly say my Roxy rates along with my OH and children, and higher than any other human in my affection, she's not just a dog, she's part of my life and that means so are her kind, like the dogs in the pound and dogs suffering due to the amnesty. Thats what makes us special people with special friends and you have to feel sorry for the people who dont have that relationship cus they miss out on soo much,

well thats my opinion anyway

[ReikiAnge]

No idea how people switch off but you're right, lots do.

[cycas]

You can't worry about everything all the time or your brain would explode.

 

I feel for the pound dogs, but I don't lie awake at night worrying about them (usually) any more than I lie awake worrying about child prostitutes, starving babies, children illiterate and criminalised by the age of puberty, pigs living and dying in factory farms... Those are just the ones that leapt to my mind, I am sure that others will have similar dark lurking images haunting them.

 

I do have an off-switch for that kind of thing, and frankly, I need one: my family have a tendency to depression and that downward spiral is always there waiting. Having seen it in others, I know how destructive dwelling on stuff you cannot change can be. One thing at a time, and do what you can when you can, is how I see it. It can, of course, go too far and become a blindness.

[saffron]

I lie awake worrying about all the dogs in pounds, the amnesty etc, wishing I could do more to help them all the strays who are out there tired and hungry and with nobody to love them I could go on forever

 

I'm the one who used to be outside at 3am with a torch when the weather was bad just so I could check on my rabbits, even though they'd been checked on countless times through the day and I knew they were ok but I also knew I wouldn't be able to get to sleep without the image of them snuggled up in their beds fresh in my mind.

Thats why they now live in the house!

 

I could use one of them switch off buttons if any of you ever find them

 

Di x

[Jacobean]

I can imagine some people would think there isn't actually anything they could do. Not everyone is aware of just what can be achieved when a group

of people stick their heads together. They don't know that dogs are being moved all over the country day in, day out to places of safety. A lot of

dogs are still being pts daily and there isn't anything we can do about it. There are days when I feel distraught at not being able to help particular

situations (poundies, bsl etc) but in the main I am able to flick a switch for my own sanity. My thoughts on it are you can't worry about every

circumstance that humans find themselves in, children, wild animals etc. It is hard to switch off at times but you must find a way.

[Ingrid]

Many people don't even think about adandoned dogs/rescue etc unless they actually are looking for one !

Then, as with people wanting a particular breed of puppy, they expect you to come up with the right dog immediately, and will go from rescue to rescue moaning that nothing is suitable .

Once they have their choice they forget about it until next time

My colleagues seem amazed that I will turn down overtime, cancel plans on days off etc. because I've had a phone call to travel for a dog, they don;t seem to understand the urgency in many of these cases.

[traceymcl]

I have to be honest, I don't lie awake worrying about dog in pounds or about the amnesty. And while I do feel sad for them, the thoughts wouldn't occupy my day.

 

This has nothing to do with dogs being less important. I also don't spend time fretting over abused children, child prostitutes, homeless people, people caught up in war zones, people caught in famine situations.

 

I'm very prone to anxiety and I have to keep a lid on it. If I spent time worrying about all those things, I wouldn't be able to work, my own dogs would suffer and I'd probably end up in hospital.

 

Tracey xx

[DanishPastry]

I must say I agree with Cycas and Tracey on this one, I would go mad if I had to think about all the bad things in the world all the time. I even say it out loud sometimes "my brain is not big enough to hold it all, I cannot have it in here or I will go mad".

Seems coping with my own life is enough for me right now, not to say I don't care, but me going insane over it won't change anything. I think if people don't have an off switch, they should work hard at getting one, do some kind of exercise that takes their mind off things, if even just for a couple of hours. Maybe a nice hot bath or meditation or something. No one person can carry the weight of the world on their shoulders, and no one person should attempt to do so.

[ranirottie]

yes,I agree with Tracey and Cycas too. I worry about my family,my own dogs,my horses,my rescue cats and the rescue dogs that I have in and the ones that are waiting to come in,I worry about hubby's blood pressure and cholestrol,and his depression,I worry about my disabled grandon and his life shortened illnesses,I worry about my elderly mum and sometimes I even get time to worry about the fact that I am ill and am going blind. I really can't worry about any more or I will explode!

[owl]

I suffered from severe and occasionally suicidal depression all through my teens and twenties simply because I couldn't forget all the suffering people and animals in the world. At that time I was a lot less effective at helping anybody at all because I was so bogged down in all this that I was unable to identify and act on the stuff I could do something about. Later on I found the option of grabbing hold of the nearest corner of the whole miserable mess and doing something about that.

 

A lot of people simply don't give 2p about people and animals outside their own family group. I'm starting to think it is something hardwired into the human brain, probably a survival trait, which we have to move past in order to make a better society as a whole. Some as we know don't even care about animals within their own household. Others find it extraordinary not to care about and get involved in the wider world. Why the difference in the field of vision? Dunno