*sobs* MOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[erastes]

It's a bad sign of my humanity if I read a book and people die and I read on, but then I stop reading with tears in my eyes when a dog gets run over.

Comments

[alankria.livejournal.com]

I'm like that with cats.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's because they don't choose to fight.

*sniff*

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I saw The Golden Age last night and I was amused to see that when the Spanish Armada is destroyed (whoops, is that a spoiler?), the film-makers make it clear that the horses managed to avoid going down with the boats.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm sure some of them died, but it was nice of the film-makers.

It's like in Independence Day when the woman and the boy are in the tunnel, I'm shouting "DOG! SAVE THE DOG!"

[tharain.livejournal.com]

No, that's normal. And understandable. =-)

[erastes.livejournal.com]

He's ok. I'm so relieved!!

[asphodeline.livejournal.com]

Now I think that's perfectly normal!!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

*laughs * seems most people agree with me, which is why they are on my flist, I suppose. Anyone who didn't would get dumped and FAST!

Misanthropy in the morning.

[chaos-rose.livejournal.com]

Nope, that's normal. We love animals unconditionally. Unconditional love for humans stops when one figures out that many of them are [pejoratives & epithets].

Re: Misanthropy in the morning.

[lunalelle.livejournal.com]

Amen to that.

Re: Misanthropy in the morning.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

i love very few humans. I love a LOT of furry things.

:)

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

um, I get teary whenever there's a TREE GROWING SCENE D:

(Good Omens, Totoro)

[erastes.livejournal.com]

You'd be in floods of tears over Attenborough's Life of Trees, then!

[ariadneelda.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm often like that, too. *g*

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Seems I'm normal. Makes a change!

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

What's abnormal about that? *cuddle*

It did upset me, however, that one of the Sisters on our ward knew I had been crying whilst I had been washing a patient one morning...I had telephoned his wife earlier saying he had deteriorated...and knew it was probably going to be his last wash. He had been fine the day before even though we knew he was near the end of his life. So after I left the treatment room to go back to his room with obviously teary-eyes I heard her say to someone else "She's such a soft..." whatever she said. Well, I am and I'm proud of the fact!

[lunalelle.livejournal.com]

Dude, she was critical because you had compassion? One of the faults within the medical arena is the lack of humanity that is sometimes necessary to get the job done. If you can do your job as well as maintain that sense of compassion, I say bravo for you.

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

Yes...and laughing... Sometimes we have to be robots, I agree...but even robots break down. Thank you for that.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I think that's admirable. I wish more carers were as sympathetic.

*hugs*

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

*hugs back* :)

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

I say that patient is very lucky to have someone humane caring for him.
She may be right, that you get burnt out if you're not hard as stones in a post like that, but if I was that person, or that person's family, I'd be incredibly glad it was you there at those loast moments.

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

I think it's because I imagine myself in the place of the closest relative, ie with this man, his wife. I was choked up on the phone but trying to remain professional etc etc. Then when I was washing him...I was imagining my other half...and what I'd be like when the time comes...if it happens that way round.

Thank you for your lovely comment. I have shared tears before with other relatives and you're right...I think it was touching for 'the nurse' to cry too. I doubt I'll ever have a heart of stone...

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

Good for you! If your heart starts to ossify you'd better take time off. Surgeons have to be detached--they can't be too empathic or they might freeze in a crisis--but there's nothing more horrible than being "treated" by heart-locked zombies. I think healing is done at the hands-on level... did you ever read Lewis Thomas' wonderful essay about nurses?

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

I don't think my heart will ever be locked...

Lewis Thomas's essay? No, I haven't. Would I just google to find it?

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

Yes, or search at Amazon--they have all his books and have preview pages. There are several collections of his essays. I'm sorry to give such a vague reference without telling you where to find it, but we just got our books unpacked and I'm not sure where Dr.Thomas has been shelved. I'll see if I can find him.

His basic premise, after a stay in the hospital as a patient, was that nurses deserve a lot more respect than they get, as they're the point-persons for medical practice and usually know more about the patient than the doctors do. (He also advocated that medical students, as a requirement for graduation, be required to stay in the hospital for a battery of diagnostic tests--just so they'd understand what their patients were dealing with.) Dr. Thomas died in 1993... I think he should be canonized. I read his analysis of meetings--that they're more about the egos of the participants than anything actually being discussed--when I was doing secretarial work in a science dept of a major university... and I really wanted to give a copy of that essay to every member of the faculty.

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I shall have to have a look-see. Haha, nurses deserving more...especially on my ward where the great majority of patients are either violent, abusive or just plain obnoxious. We're in the front line, alright.

[c-lovell.livejournal.com]

I think that's pretty much the norm. I went to some movie and a dog died in it and everyone was like OMG - yet a whole bunch of people and explosions happened earlier in the film and no one even blinked. lol

[erastes.livejournal.com]

*giggles * Yep. That's me. In Independence Day I was worried about the dog more than the woman or stupid kid.

[iulia_linnea.livejournal.com]

I'm upset just hearing about it; I'd say you're closer to normal than I am. *hugs*

[erastes.livejournal.com]

He's ok. Phew.

[iulia_linnea.livejournal.com]

That is exactly the kind of spoiler I need. :D

[batboy126.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is. You're a bad person, that's all there is to it.

Are you referring to any particular fictional dog? Just wondering.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

*LAUGHS*

Mouse from the Dresden Files.

[ctrl-issue.livejournal.com]

Nope, it's pretty standard. People fnd it easier to get attached to animals than to people, so when animals are hurt, it hurts us more. At least, that's the way I think of it.

I remember in one comic book when they wanted to show how cruel a character was, he killed a dog rather than mass murder. Mass murder in comic books is pretty standard, and they were all faceless victims. Even if he'd selected a single individual, it still wouldn't carry the same impact as it would killing an animal.

[lunalelle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when Jaws gets the dog, you know he's one motherfucker who's going down, baby.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

That was HORRIBLE. Take more kids, I was saying.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I certainly do, that's for sure.

[moondancerdrake.livejournal.com]

They can kill folks all they want, but the minute they kill a kid or an animal I'm done. In books or in movies.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Oh kids, NO problem. :) MUNCH MUNCH.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

Nomnomnom!

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

Domesticated animals have no ulterior motives; they just want love and food.

[tigerblak.livejournal.com]

Keep reading!!!!

I cried at that part too, but I made myself keep going because Harry would definitely get righteous on them with the fozare for taking out his dog...

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

I was reading a mystery the other day--it was an older one, and very light-hearted--and then all of a sudden some bastard shot the damsel-in-distress's DOG. For no reason that did anything for the plot. The dog was just a damned prop. I never finished the book and I wouldn't read anything else by that author. If somebody's going to put a dog in a book, they'd damn well better treat that dog like I'd want my dog treated.

Animals touch the heart. I would worry about anyone who didn't get upset at an animal being mistreated.

Speaking of which, if anyone's got good thoughts to spare, please send 'em to my pooch (icon.) She's got a fast-growing lump on her forehead and I'm still waiting for the biopsy results. She's 15 1/2, I know she won't last forever, but .. she's my dog, y'know?