Someone gave my puppy the middle finger today; I’m just really really tired of judgmental people.

For reference: I have a 6 month old pug.
He was a rescue; essentially he lived in a horrible home, the mom of the pug was apparently REALLY mean to him on top of the rancid conditions. I know people don’t love pugs particularly for their breathing issues (which I understand, and I know the distaste is more towards the ethics of humans rather than directed at the breed itself). But today, while taking him for a walk, some stranger walked up to us & bent down to him, and I thought he was going to try to pet our puppy, but instead he flipped him off & mumbled “little monster” under his breath.

I know my puppy couldn’t understand, but it really set me over the edge in terms of how judged I feel for even owning him in the first place, and how bad I feel for him knowing that some people will act either out of pity towards him, or minority disgusted when all he wants to do is give others love. Like first off, his previous home was a nightmare & I take very good care of him, meaning me owning him will give him way more happiness than he otherwise would have (which, if we really care about ethics, we can’t argue that this is a bad thing). Second off is that this puppy is the most extroverted, sensitive, and happiest little dog I have ever seen; he LOVES making people feel seen & cuddling up against even strangers. I’ve had strangers at the dog park say they were having a bad day & my dog made them feel better. Not to mention, he’s “miraculously healthy” according to our vet (he doesn’t have breathing issues & he’s lean & athletic). I’ve had people give him nasty looks while walking down the street, I’ve been asked at the dog park whether he was ethically bred & why I would choose him over other breeds, 1 person asked me if I thought pugs had the capacity to be happy (which…. I can tell he’s very happy, but why even ask me that if you barely know me?) And then this experience with that stranger today hurt me on both of our behalfs (but mainly his; because I know a lot of people won’t look at him as anything more than a charity case). I wish people could think critically & not just categorize & stereotype every situation (even if it is based on a trend that’s true a lot of the time).

It’s less about the judgment that I care about & more just about the audacity people have to judge situations they know nothing about….. but also if you really want to be an advocate, maybe protest against unethical breeders & don’t flip off my innocent puppy, or judge his happiness without getting to know him. I guess today was a wake up call in how much audacity some people have, and that’s a bit worrying to me.