Human nature, good and bad...

It has been such a wierd time recently. It all started with the dog saga last week.

I was starting to lose hope of finding Oscar and feeling awful. I spent last Wednesday making 'Have you seen this Dog?' posters. On Thursday morning I went into our local Chemist and had a chat with the lady who works in there. She took one of my posters and said she would show it to everyone who came in. She was so kind and sympathetic. I then went along the road and put up a poster outside the Tennis Club. A posh woman came up and asked what I was doing. This is how the conversation went:
(Me)'We've lost our dog and I'm just putting up some posters to try to find him.'
(Her) 'What sort of dog is it?'
(Me) 'He's a labrador cross. I'm hoping someone will recognise him.'
(Her, glancing at the poster, and then walking off) 'Oh I shouldn't think so. They're ten a penny, dogs like that.'

Bitch.

Anyway, that needless exchange upset me for the rest of the day. UNTIL. The lady from the Chemist rang me to say she had found my dog!!!! Someone had been in and she had shown them the poster and they had found my dog and had been looking after him!

So I contacted the lady who had taken Oscar in and went round to get him. He was at a house only a few streets away. I tell you, he was FAT! He's the only dog I know who can go missing for 5 days and come back looking better than when he left! This kind lady had done nothing but feed him, I think. She had bought him a new collar and lead and had become quite attached to him. I think she was secretly hoping he was a stray and she could keep him. I felt quite guilty taking him home!

So then I was all drunk on the milk of human kindness. Until Friday.
I was walking home from taking dear daughter to school and coming towards me in the road by my house there were 3 lads from the local school playing kick-about with a tin can. Nothing wrong with that. Then one of them picks up the can and chucks it over the hedge into one of my neighbour's garden.
Well I wasn't having that, so I challenged him and told him to pick it up and put it in a bin. There was a bit of argument and then he went and picked it up. I walked on and then I heard this clank as they chucked the can into the road. Well, at this point I completely lost my temper! I ran back down the road and shouted at these kids to pick it up and put it in a bin. They were swearing and abusive but one of them finally went back and got the can and kicked it along the road saying he was going to find a bin. I was so angry I was shaking. And I had my 2yr old son with me. I went home, had a cup of tea and called the school.

I demanded to speak to the Head, and because he was out of school that day, I was put through to the Deputy Head. Poor bloke, I absolutely blasted him, complaining about this incident and the general behaviour of some of the kids at the school; the litter and the swearing and the bad manners and lack of courtesy and respect for anyone. I expected him to say, yes thanks and goodbye. But he didn't.

He invited me into the school where I identified the can-throwing culprit who was then made to apologise to me! I gave the kid a bit of a lecture, which my dear son punctuated with 'Mummy, I need a wee', so completely ruining my oratory....

Anyway it kind of ended well. I'm just expecting my tyres to be slashed now, or graffitti daubed on my house...

But I do really believe it is important for members of the public to get involved in trying to stop incidents of bad behaviour like this. I just feel that if more adults faced up to kids who were being 'naughty', then their behaviour would be nipped in the bud and would not escalate into much more serious anti-social disorder. I heard on the news today that a man has been murdered in Norwich, trying to break up a fight in a taxi rank. This is so sad, but it must not stop people intervening. If we allow ourselves to be afraid, then the yobs and the criminals have won, and the lunatics really will be running the asylum.