Saturday, 18 July 2009

Dog days - and nights.

I'll be going to bed with some trepidation tonight. The last two nights, my sleep (such as it was) has been punctuated by the yelping of a dog which the family next door have acquired either for themselves or, I'm hoping, are watching for someone while they are away. They lock it alone in a downstairs room and, anyone with half a brain knows that such a pack animal will suffer mental agonies being left for hours locked away in solitude. It sounds youngish so I fear they may have got a puppy for themselves. Even keeping my bedroom window shut doesn't make that much difference - its pathetic crying is so piercing. I can't understand why the people aren't so disturbed by the noise themselves that they find it somewhere physically closer to themselves, but I've always been a light sleeper - in fact almost, but not quite, an insomniac. It's the distress of the animal that upsets at least as much as the noise. The suffering of animals, any animal, causes me such mental torments it's debilitating. I'm afraid to say anything to them as up to now I've had good relations with the large family and it could so easily turn nasty. So at the moment I'm taking the coward's way out and hoping that a new tenant soon moves in below me and they, being even closer to the poor animal, maybe will say something. (White feather time!)
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2 comments:

  1. paul22 July 2009 at 09:17

    I fully understaned the emotional turmoil that you are going through. I don't know what I would do under the circumstances. But, I've learned one thing, although I still can't come to gripps with it: You're always going to see animals suffering, either physically or mentally. People have grown so callous and hard to the sufferings of the defenseless. I hope that you are able to come to terms with this and have some peace.

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  2. Raybeard22 July 2009 at 23:27

    Thanks for those thoughts, Paul. Over the years I've flirted with Buddhism (without actually being able to get to the stage of defining myself as a bona-fide 'member'.) You probably know that this religion (if one can define it as such) accords ALL life, including that of animals, more respect than all other religions put together. But it also teaches detachment from one's own feelings by observing, 'taking note' and standing back impassively. I think this is the best idea - though it sometimes requires more mental effort than I feel I'm capable off. But I do know that if I just dwelt on such matters and didn't attempt to block them out I'd rapidly just go completely insane! By the way, the yelping of the dog next door is a bit more variable now - some nights totally absent as far as I can tell, which seems to indicate it's not being entirely locked up the whole time, but other times still continuous for hours on end.

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