Living in China: Entitled Parent Tries to Take Away My Dog [Part 2]
This entitled parent is a handful.
Side note: This story was originally written a year ago and recently updated.
Responding to EP
Even when the dog was in her care, EP (Entitled Parent) was scared of her. Our dog has a bad habit (that we’re currently trying to correct) of trying to jump onto familiar people she knows. Whenever we saw EP and her son, our dog would try to jump on them — an act that was not received well by the EP when Emmy jump-lunged for the hem of her dress one day.
I didn’t take her words seriously because I knew she wasn’t able to handle the dog whenever it acted up and would not carry through with her threat. I replied to her message by addressing each point she brought up.
I explained that I had read her message when she had sent it. However, I was planning to reply back properly at a later time. I also let her know that our evenings from Monday to Thursday are the busiest for us. However, her son was welcome to come up to our apartment to see the dog on Friday, Saturday and/or Sunday.
I also responded that if her son brought his English homework from school during his visits with Emmy, I would be able to help him check his homework answers. I made it clear that I would help him, not supply free English classes.
With regards to her personal attacks about our “lack of manners”, I chose not to give her choice words over WeChat messages for several reasons:
A) If I had come up with a more aggressive response (which my husband and mother-in-law were in favor of), she could have easily take a screenshot and attempted to paint me as the villain. Considering how hot-headed and unreasonable this EP was, I wouldn’t put it beneath her to try to smear me and my reputation as a teacher in this district.
B) I was planning to give her some choice words in person. My husband and I had a good laugh over her statement about “Chinese manners”. If her idea of “Chinese manners” involved throwing wild accusations, no thanks. I rolled my eyes while Confucius likely rolled in his grave.
The Aftermath
Perhaps she felt sufficient embarrassment and shame about herself, but EP didn’t try to contact me again after this conversation. Towards the end of this tiresome message exchange, she tried backpedaling several times when she realized that she had overreacted — trying to shift blame onto her child.
It was months later that we heard that EP’s family had acquired a new dog — one that was smaller. EP’s little monster cheerfully informed us one afternoon that his new dog ran away (he told us this when we ran into him while he was downstairs playing on his own).
Not shockingly, he didn’t looks the slightest bit sad when he shared that bit of news with us. Instead of being taught that pet ownership had a lot of responsibility attached, it was clear that he considered dogs to be furry entertainment designed for his amusement.
Unfortunately for us, we ran into EP and her family several times. Although it was rare, it will still equally unpleasant every time.
Present Day
Fast forward to the present (November 2021), we moved to our new apartment and Emmy is doing well! She’s a beautiful flatcoat retriever with a never-ending reserve of energy and loves to cuddle with us.
We call her a cuddle opportunist because she finds any and every way to snuggle up. Although she acquired some poor habits from her previous owners, time and extensive training fixed them.
Also, she developed a lot more confidence over time and loves to make both fur friends and human friends. Having such a sweet girl by my side, I’m grateful to have her as a companion while I work at home.
Other
Her previous owners called her 小鬼 which directly translates to “Little Good”. We decided not to keep that name and christen her with a new English name instead. My husband really liked the name, Emerson, so while her official name is Emerson — we call her Emmy for short.
A Word from My Husband
Sometimes Emmy would grumpily get up from her bed in the corner of the house from being absolutely sick and tired of not getting pet for the last 5 minutes; To her, it’s absolutely ridiculous that she has to come to us to get pet. From this point onwards, EP is entitled pet. 😆
Last Word
We are grateful that Emmy came into our lives. As first-time pet owners, it was a steep learning curve that involved a lot of Google searches and reading about dog training/care, but it was well worth it. We’re also happy to have rescued her from the staircase that she was previously kept in.
Some people make the mistake of thinking of dogs as cute toys without actually considering how much time, effort, care, and love (as well as financial resources) are needed to raise a pet.
My husband and I always had a childhood dream of raising a dog, and Emmy clearly needed a better home. Thankfully, it was serendipitous timing that brought us all together.
