{"id":24140,"date":"2026-08-28T15:33:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T20:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hendersonbrook.net\/?p=24140"},"modified":"2026-08-28T15:33:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T20:33:01","slug":"never-forgive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hendersonbrook.net\/?p=24140","title":{"rendered":"Never Forgive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day is observed annually on August 28th<\/mark> to honor and remember pets who have passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m thinking about Paula, Teddy and Lizzie as well as Andi and Dan’s Rugby, but especially Teddy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teddy was part or possibly all Chow. We had no idea of his former life so a person with normal empathy would have treated him with special care and gentleness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, Ron did not respect Teddy’s boundaries. Teddy bit him in the face a couple of times, the second ruining a pair of glasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that point, I made a terrible mistake. I trusted the Animal Rescue League of Massachusetts to advise us of the right course. They decided Teddy needed to be murdered, i.e., euthanized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, we brought Teddy back to the shelter. Because Ron had signed the original paperwork and was the one who’d been injured, I left the decision to him. I will regret that for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teddy was not a bad dog. He needed probably more skillful care than I knew how to give him, and the sad thing is that one of our neighbors who described himself as “part dog” probably could have taught me\/us some handling strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sobbed all the way home from the shelter and mourned for months afterwards. I finally called one of the managers at MSPCA to discuss their decision. She tried to console me. I hasn’t worked, years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I made a beautiful zucchini lasagna and a big salad for lunch. Ron sat through the meal with a look on his face like he was crouched on rocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ron invited old friends of his to visit us tomorrow. I’ve been noticing how foul-smelling our garage has become because of a compost container that should have been emptied a week or more ago. It was covered with maggots, inside and out. It weighed at least 45 pounds, I didn’t measure it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve asked Ron to do two things in preparation for his friends’ visit: clean off a little table on the deck and bring the compost container to the transfer station, which has a compost shed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course he wouldn’t do either thing so I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So let me ask you: which would you value more, a good dog or a poor husband? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not a trick question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day is observed annually on August 28th to honor and remember pets who have passed. I’m thinking about Paula, Teddy and Lizzie as well as Andi and Dan’s Rugby, but especially Teddy. Teddy was part or possibly … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hendersonbrook.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hendersonbrook.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hendersonbrook.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hendersonbrook.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hendersonbrook.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hendersonbrook.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24141,"href":"https:\/\/hendersonbrook.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24140\/revisions\/24141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hendersonbrook.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hendersonbrook.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hendersonbrook.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}