I know this is not the usual thing for this forum, but I figured I could get some advice anyway. First and foremost I'm probably going to have to put down my little brothers dog tomorrow. Sadly, he has a temper issue that he's had since he was a pup. I've had a lot of dogs, but this one is so far out there that we can't do anything else. He has gone after each member of my family and usually just barks aggressively, but has in the past bit other members of my family. Tonight he put the final nail in the coffin when he when after and sank his teeth into a family friend for just trying to pet him (we were all watching, it's not a he said she said thing). Plus this time it was different usually if someone that he's not barking at gets in between he'll back off, but this time he tried to slip past me and my stepdad twice to go at her again. Anyway, I'm not asking advice on what to do about the dog as that's not really my decision and I know it's probably going to happen. What concerns me is how emotionally disconnected I was when everything happened tonight. Granted it kinda helped in getting the dog under control and quickly tending to the family friends injuries, but even after things settled down and I was talking with my stepdad about it all, I just didn't care. I didn't care about the dog (granted I was never close to him), I didn't care about anything related to the dog and I wasn't able to emphasize with my stepdad's unrest about the decisions that he has to make or any of it. Idk I am just weirded out by the fact I just feel complete apathy about the whole thing....
it isn't weird that it doesn't bother you, especially considering that you never seemed to form a companionship with the dog. it's not like you guys are putting the dog down for the wrong reasons, if you were just putting the dog down because you were sick of caring for it, that'd be a different ballgame. i think you just agree in your mind that it's something that needs to be done because the dog never learned to contain itself. if your family does follow up their plans tomorrow to put the dog down, you might find a change of heart about the situation. sometimes things don't actually seem that they're really happening until it happens. honestly, i'm like that when it comes to death. i remember a couple years ago i lost one of my good friends to a car wreck. i was close to this person and i remember being upset but i never cried, it just never seemed real to me and i didn't get as down about it as a normal person / everyone else in that situation. even at the calling, i was just kind of indifferent about it. but when i attended the burial service it just completely hit me all at once and i was completely devastated.
It's okay to be indifferent about death. As you've said, you're not close to the dog...and because he's been such a problem, you might end up feeling more relief that it's over than any kind of mourning. It's like when an animal (or human) is very sick for a long time before death. When it happens you can be more relieved that it's over than upset that they've died.
