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my dad took bear to see my grandmother on mother's day since she used to be her dog, they were very happy to see each other. afterwards my dad, sister, and i went to the pet store to get more dog food and decided to take bear in

2 of the workers there walked up and said bear was a pretty dog and then aprcached her from behind and pet her without asking. im really suprised she didnt try to lunge at them.

but a little while later there was a little girl there with her parents. she was so small she could hardly see over bear's back, she was so cute. well she walked up with her parents and asked if she could pet bear and i said yes. she then did the most amazing thing, she calmly got closer to bear and let her sniff her hand before trying to pet her. bear of course loved the attention

i love it when people ask before they try to pet any dog. and why the hell would anyone think its a good idea to come at a strange dog from behind to pet it?

cєℓєsтιαℓ ғιʀєғℓιєs:

Some people are just stubborn and think that because it's an animal, anyone has the right to show affection to it or feed it. Not the privilege, but the right to pet or feed whatever animal they want. confused I know because I live with someone like this. She incited a huge fight, during which she called me "sick" and "over-controlling" (then almost threw me out of the house), because I asked her to not feed my rats snacks for a couple of days while I figured out their food.

One time she relayed to me how she thinks it's cruel that people take their service animals out in public and tell people not to pet them. She was telling me how she got into an argument with someone because she pet a blind person's dog, and another person said that you shouldn't pet service animals. Apparently, her words were, "You can't just take an animal out in public and expect no one to pet it!! Dogs need love, that's cruel!!" Later on, I watched her pet someone's service dog (from behind, without asking) while the lady gave her the stink eye.

I personally don't understand it either. I don't see what's so hard about asking, "May I pet your dog?" and just plain leaving service animals alone. But some people are either clueless or have a huge entitlement complex when it comes to animals.

Edit: And when you think about it, would it be appropriate to go up to someone's kid and start touching their hair or hugging them? Heck no, that would be creepy. And I know the woman I live with sure as hell wouldn't have let people do that to her kids. But if I ever brought it up like that to her, she would just say what she's said before (verbatim): "OMG, you would compare your kids to an animal?!?!! That's MORBID!!" rolleyes