The Cost of Empathy
On a road trip with my two younger cousins across the state of Washington we saw a small black dog in the midst of heat waves from the pavement on the highway. My loved ones think this is peculiar, but I make it my mission to rescue stray/ lost dogs. When I was 11, my mom and I lost our late Chihuahua Charlie, and I was devastated. Luckily, Charlie decided to go for a neighborhood stroll and return home on his own accord, but this isn’t the case for all dogs. Some dogs might be separated from their person and unsure of their way home. My cousins and I were able to greet the dog with a leftover McChicken, and we instantly fell in love with him. People living in the area where we found the dog told us that he had been running around the streets alone for weeks. The nearest animal shelter was nearing Seattle, which was almost 6 hours away. As the older cousin, I had to make a difficult choice. Do we leave this dog in the street or do we bring him to the nearest animal shelter? I chose to bring him with us on a 6-hour drive heading toward Seattle.
This sounds a bit crazy, I know. Over the span of a few hours, we cared for him, gave him water, bought him a leash and harness, and named him Momo. Once we arrived at the shelter, my cousins and I were devastated to leave Momo behind. Neither one of us was able to keep him and parting ways with our new best friend was one of the hardest things to do. We shed tears, hugged, and said our goodbyes. I was determined to follow up with Momo to ensure he found his family or at least a loving home. Months have passed, and when following up with the animal shelter I was informed that Momo had been reunited with his family! They had been looking for him for months. 6 hours away, Momo was returned to his forever home.
A question for reflection: What is the cost of displaying empathy? I don’t mind if others think the things I do are strange because I understand that everyone feels things differently. Emotions are strange. During my life experiences, I found that some people are unable to display certain types of emotions during certain life circumstances. I am a person who feels the feelings of others, and when others aren’t able to feel, I feel for them.
Now this situation could’ve turned out very badly. What if Momo wasn’t a friendly dog? What if he had an illness that could’ve been passed on to people? What if this just wasn’t a good idea. I have no argument against this. Empathy can come with a cost and these are a few of them. Being an empathetic person is a beautiful thing, but it can be harmful as well. I find that the best way to mitigate this is to exercise good judgment as much as possible. Working in the mental health field as an empathetic person has drawbacks that often lead to symptoms of burnout. I intend to discuss these drawbacks more throughout my blog.