Okay, I just learned a little tidbit of information that I would've been perfectly fine going my entire life without knowing, so I need to vent a little.
A bit of background first: When I was in grade school, both of my parents were working full time jobs, and the school bus didn't run in our area because we were doing schools of choice. Because of this, my brother and I had to get up at the crack of dawn so my mom could drop us off at my Grandma's house on her way to work, after which she would bring us to school for her. She also babysat us most days during the summer for the same reason. I had quite a close relationship with her.
Since I was an infant, she had a dog named Jesse, a big spunky husky that she kept chained up in the back yard. He was a little loud and rambunctious but very sweet and gentle, and I went out to visit him and play with him every single day for 8 years.
One summer, when I was 12, I arrived at my grandma's house at 5 AM and followed my typical routine: pretended to sleep on the couch until my mom was gone and my brother was asleep, went into the kitchen and filled a plastic cup with kibble, and went out the door into the back yard. Jesse never really slept much so he'd usually come out of his dog house to greet me when he heard the door open, but this time he didn't. I didn't think anything of it and just walked over to his dog house with the food. I found his chain snapped and the house empty. I bolted back into the house, basically screaming, and got grandma out of bed and told her what I saw. She told me that he had broken loose and ran away the night before.
Now, this had happened several times before. As my grandparents started getting older they were taking him for walks less and less, and he tended to get a bit antsy every now and then. He was always brought home safely in the end a few days later, either from asking around the neighborhood or of his own accord. So, while I was quite worried, my grandma assured me he was going to be okay, and that was enough to calm me down so I could go back to sleep.
Days passed. Then weeks. Jesse still wasn't home. This obviously upset me, and I had pestered grandma about it literally every day. I made my own flyers and posted them on every lamp post I could, and I had even gone out to look for him myself several times, travelling far beyond the boundaries that had been set for me to play in, all to no avail. Eventually my beloved grandmother sat me down, looked me in the eyes and told me: "Jesse's old, honey. Maybe he knew that his time was up and he didn't want us to have to see him go." I sat there for a second, kind of stunned. I hadn't really thought about that. He was indeed about 16 years old, which is quite the number for a dog, and he hadn't been active or spunky in a very long time. As much as I didn't want to, I said "alright" and gave her a hug, and gave up the search.
I cried myself to sleep that night and a few of the nights that followed. Even though I didn't own him, Jesse was my dog, and he was important to me. We weren't allowed to have dogs where we lived, especially not big dogs. We had one cat, and he was an starfish, so Jesse was basically the only real pet I ever had. And he was gone.
That was almost 10 years ago.
I just heard my parents talking to each other in their bedroom a few minutes ago. My aunt recently moved back into grandmas house with her pit bull Lucky, and my mom was talking about how bad grandma is at taking care of dogs. They were only talking about Lucky at first, but then she brought up Jesse, and I heard a phrase that made my entire body tremble with disgust, shock, and hatred.
I didn't even think, I immediately stood up from the kitchen table, walked into their doorway, and made her repeat herself. Jesse had been found and caught 3 days after he had escaped that night. The pound had called grandma and told her they had him, and asked her to pick him up. She declined. She didn't want to pay the fine to bring him back home.
Post any instances when you felt deeply and crushingly betrayed by someone close to you.
