Went with my family and my daughter’s friend to see Insurgent over the weekend at the theater. Naturally you get to sit through and enjoy about a half hour worth of previews. I don’t really mind it much as we don’t go to the movies often, it’s nice to see what might be coming that I can watch on the DVR in five years. Yes, that’s how frequently we watch movies.
A preview came on for a new movie about a dog, Max. Not thirty seconds into the preview do I start sniffing and the eyes are watering. I cannot watch movies about animals! Any movie! I read the book Marley and Me and no way would I watch the movie… no way, I know what happens in that one! Even Homeward Bound made me cry. The animals are using human speaking voices, I definitely know it’s “only a movie” but my heart breaks every time I see one.
This preview is crushing. Something about it is a military dog and in one scene, you see him laying next to a coffin with a flag draped over it. I couldn’t even watch the rest of the preview. My daughter was cracking up at my heart.
I figured it out long ago that I feel for animals because to me, they are like children that don’t have a voice. Being beaten and abused as a child, there really isn’t anything you can do about it. Ever since I have worked through the pain of those years, I have been a complete sap! Animals under any kind of duress, I can’t handle it.
If I see a dog in a parked car in the heat, guess who will be happy to break open your window? I will have you paged in the store and call the police if they can help quickly; I will not watch a dog or a child suffer. I am not capable of it.
Yes I am the crazy lady that swerves to miss birds and squirrels. I couldn’t live with myself if I hit any kind of animal.
Sadly, my husband doesn’t “get it” as much as my daughter does. We were heading out to a camping trip a few summers ago and my husband loudly says, “oh no, look”! Not having a clue what he was talking about, I turn my head as he slows down to see a horse that had just fallen off a cliff onto the road. Seriously John? You had me look at that? I immediately broke down and it ruined my camping trip.
On the way home we learned that a man was walking the horse up above the steep ledge and strangely, the horse lost his footing. The man didn’t fall. I can still clearly see that horse to this day in my minds eye. We’ve been married almost 17 years, you would think he would know better by now.