The Unthinkable--- An Apology!

Anyone who follows my other blog, glorybug will see that I've had an ongoing thing with baby squirrels being brought into my house.

They are cuter than a bug's butt. They are also delicate, and die easily.

I recently posted a Craigslist letter, asking for help with the baby squirrels. Most of the responses I got were positive, even if they gave harmful info (like feeding the babies kitten formula), but one stood out just because it was so mean-spirited.

One email I got accused me of not caring about the baby squirrels. Of wanting to take care of them 'my way' regardless of if it would hurt the baby. Obviously, this is not true. Setting your alarm for every 3 hours probably means you don't want a baby squirrel to die.

So I wrote back to the person, and restrained myself, in saying that I actually do love animals and want to do my best to take care of them when their mother cannot. I also noted that it was interesting that they felt the need to provide links in their email to the fact that they were a doberman dog breeder- and how sad that is to be selling dogs when the Fresno SPCA kills hundreds of dogs a month for not having a loving home. I was not expecting a very nice response.

So, imagine my surprise when I received this-
"You're right. I was rude. I'm sorry. Glad to hear that the baby is doing well."

Apologies are really highly under-rated.

I still don't like that this person sells dogs when we have so many dogs getting killed every month at our shelter, but I absolutely respect that the person put themself out enough to apologize for having been rude. It makes me think about when I should perhaps apologize for things I've said. Maybe not so much what I've said, but the manner in which I've said it.

So, I have written back to them, thanking them for their apology, and for their graciousness in doing so.

Everyone can learn from that, eh?