“Los Angeles Woman Confesses to Abusive Relationship with Dog” by Sheila Appleby Williams

Now before you put the nearest animal shelter/rescue group on speed dial, the nature of this abusive relationship needs to be clarified. The woman, identified as Sheila Appleby Williams (a freelance writer) has named her pug, Phoebe Rose as the abuser in the relationship.

With the recent front page tabloids featuring distraught young Hollywood celebs (with perfectly made up faces and hair) revealing shameful secrets like ex-boyfriend forced me to have lipo and “I had to be perfect”, Sheila Appleby Williams had the courage to come forward and make her announcement.

“I knew this wasn’t going to be a 50/50 relationship from the start, but I had no idea how out of balance and one sided it would become” said Ms. Williams as a slew of reporters and animal rights activists assembled to hear her statement.

The pattern is a familiar one according to a number of therapists. “People can have unhealthy relationships when they lose objectivity,” explains counselor Marty Tousley, RN, MS, CS. Tousley notes that human-animal bonds are unhealthy when we expect our pets to take the place of people. Many women (there might be a few men- but they’re usually too ashamed to speak up), mostly single and often middle -aged empty nesters are easy victims. The need to be in a committed relationship and to nurture is deeply ingrained in women and when that need is unfulfilled, well the huge emptiness becomes an aching void. And that void is most commonly filled by the irresistible charm of a devoted “furry baby” eager to lick the hand that feeds him/her.

“Well, that’s how it was at the beginning,” tearfully confessed Ms. Williams to the crowd. “At first, she (referring to her significant pooch, Miss Phoebe Rose) seemed grateful for whatever little thing I did for her or gave her to eat. She made few if any demands and showered me with affection. I was in heaven; it was like an absolute honeymoon. She would follow me from room to room and couldn’t bear to let me out of her sight. She slept cuddled in my arms all night with her head resting on the pillow beside me.”

“I don’t know exactly when things started to change, or on second thought, maybe I do,” confessed Ms. Williams. “I think it all began to change when I took her to play at a friend’s home. My friend has a very nice large home (much fancier than mine) and I could see how much Phoebe enjoyed the extra space and luxurious over sized chairs. She paid particular attention to the king size pillow top mattress and Italian 400 thread count sheets. She didn’t want to leave and when I got her home, she looked at me in a different way than before- sort of a questioning look, with her head tilted to the side – like she needed some answers, and then realizing that I didn’t have any to give her, she slowly and deliberately made her way to the living room couch and left me to sleep alone in the bed. This would become a familiar pattern. When I did something to displease her or wouldn’t buy her a special toy or designer outfit, she would punish me by ignoring me, sometimes not making a sound for days, no licks and refuse to come when I called her name (well, actually that was never one of her strong points).

The real abuse began when I took her to off leash dog parks- she loved to run free and play with the other dogs. The problem was she would follow the other people and sometimes try to climb into their cars. People would smile and act amused, but I know what they were thinking “a public display of rejection like that is very difficult to ignore.”

“We’re in canine couples therapy now,” admitted Ms. Williams. “I don’t want to give up on the relationship and our therapist thinks that we can work through this.”

Accurate statistics on pet inflicted human abuse is not available since most dysfunctional canine/human relationships go unreported due to the stigma and shame.

by Sheila Appleby Williams

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Tags:  Creative Writing, Sheila appleby Williams