Tale of the Runaway Purebred

There once was a woman who owned a champion purebred.  However, he did not groom himself the way the Master wanted and did not perform the way the Master wanted. It didn’t matter how much he worked to appease the Master or how hard he tried to make the Master happy. It was never, ever good enough. The Master was never satisfied and always wanted more.

The owner abused the purebred growing up. She yelled at it and threatened it and punished it constantly, often for unknown or trivial reasons. It was so common that the purebred cowered in fear of her and whimpered in her sight or peed on the floor out of fright.

The other animals did not want to play with the purebred, because he struggled to develop the self-confidence to socialize. And because he didn’t socialize properly, many of the other animals also attacked the purebred, only exasperating the problem.

There was no love in the home, only a small, bare kennel in a lavish home. He was never petted or given treats, and rarely let out of the house.  Everything from the Master was entirely conditional, and almost all negative reinforcement.

One day, at the dog age of 2 years, the purebred ran away and never returned.  The Master wasn’t concerned or worried for his health or safety.  She was furious.  He was her prized possession.  He had insulted her by running away.  And yet she never asked herself why.  Self reflection never occurred to her.  It never did.  Everything was always someone else’s fault.

She posted fliers everywhere and interrogated everyone. She was quite hostile, actually. She was a very hostile person toward people as well as animals.

The Master then learned that another family had taken the purebred in and refused to return him, because they had seen the effects of the abuse.  The Master sent all kinds of threats to that family and all of the neighbors in the community.

She acted that way because she thought she was supposed to always get her way, and expected to always get her way.  Being hostile and threatening was the only way she knew how to get her way, and she was even worse when she didn’t get her way.

It only confirmed in the minds of the entire community, who had been watching the entire charade and who also suffered her torment, that she was unfit to take care of animals.

Embarrassed and ashamed of what everyone in the community thought of her, she finally (finally!) realized that she was the one who needed to conform to community standards, not everyone else conform to hers. She finally (finally!) realized that she needed to be nice to others. She finally (finally!) realized that she needed to respect other’s boundaries.

She worked very hard to never, ever threaten anyone ever again. She worked doubly hard to never, ever harm anyone ever again. And she worked triply hard to be accepting, tolerant, honest, generous, and kind to everyone.

And she let go of ever expecting to get her way ever again. She realized sometimes she might and sometimes she might not, and that was just going to be good enough for her from now on.

Because if she didn’t change now, fully, the community was going to ask her to pack her bags and leave town, and never return again. This was her last warning. It was her last straw.  She had hurt far too many people for far too long. This was it.

They all lived much better and happier after that.