There was a headline on the news this morning: who wants to save an ugly animal? There are two ways you can read that: as a call for volunteers or as who wants to bother saving them because they’re ugly?
Ugly (and beauty) is in the eye of the beholder. Is a dog who has lost a leg to a car accident ugly? A cat who lost part of an ear in a fight? A pet who carries the scars of past abuses? We each have our own set of aesthetics. Some people find the smashed-in faces of pugs and Persians irresistible; some prefer the drooly, jowly face of a boxer or bulldog. You may love the silky look of a long haired dog or cat; you may prefer the tousled texture of a terrier’s coat.
That’s a face only a mother can love. He’s so ugly he’s cute! Words may not hurt a pet as easily as they can hurt a person. But just like with people, what is on the inside can be far more important than what is on the outside. It just takes a little time to look past what’s on the outside to see the personality within.
My brother’s dog Lily is a good example of not judging a dog by her outsides. She’s big. She’s got a loud, deep bark. She looks and sounds scary if you see her barking at the front window. But once you’re inside, you quickly learn that all Lily wants to do is kiss you. This big bruiser of a dog (she’s an American Staffordshire terrier) just wants to sit at your side or in your lap and cuddle.
When I was in the shelter where I met Lally, I saw a dog called Zeus. Zeus was another scary looking dog — he’s a pit bull/great Dane mix, and he was seriously LARGE. All he did was sit in his run and bark bark bark. I got to see Zeus again a few months later at an adoption event and this huge dog turned out to be another gentle giant. He sat serenely through the chaos of dogs, cats, and families and watched it all without so much as a woof.
And just for the record, that article was about the effort to save an unusual looking and endangered animal. But the headline is what got me thinking, about beauty and love. What’s on the inside is really what’s important.