Living Out Loud

The other day Sean, Jillian and I walked to the library. We just did it to get out of the house. I happened to have a couple of books I wanted to return and the weather was really nice. So we walked to the library through a neighborhood green space that goes behind houses up the street.

As we came back we passed a house with 3 boys - maybe around age 10 to 12 - in the backyard. They were sort of chasing a dog - a white boxer, I think - around the yard with tennis rackets and a short chain in hand. It was hard to tell at first if they were trying to herd the dog into its run or if they were being mean to him just to be mean. They were being mean.

One boy saw that we'd stopped and were watching, and he stopped the other boys from what they were doing and told them to wait. We stood and watched for at least 5 minutes while one of them hid behind a tree and the other 2 kind of threw things at the dog. They eventually put the rackets down and pretended to pet him. As we walked off, one boy made noise with the chain and came to the fence to watch us go.

Sean went to the front door of the house and told the man who answered what we saw. Who knows if the man cared or intended to do anything other than let the boys continue to terrorize the dog.

Those boys obviously knew they were doing something they shouldn't - because otherwise there was no need to stop when someone was watching. But they did it anyway. And that's the part that bothers me.