My good samaritan mini-adventure

I finally got around to taking my car in to get the transmission fixed. On the way I stopped off to run some late errands before losing my mode of transportation for a while. I was leaving the target parking lot when my mini-adventure started.

From somewhere near circuit city a dog came running across the parking lot. At first it looked like the dog just belonged to some people who were letting him run around before getting back in the car, but then he took off again and I didn't see anyone running after him.

I lost sight of the dog and thought to myself for a few moments that it wasn't my problem, and that surely the owner would come along soon enough and find him. But then while I was leaving I saw the dog as actually right next to my car under a tree. Long story short the dog turned out to be a really nice one, at least nice enough to allow me to drag him around to stores asking people to go in and ask someone to make an announcement on their PA system that a dog had been lost. I don't really know much about dogs, so it took me a while to realize that the dog was too skinny, and dirty (the former I didn't realize of course till I wiped my hand on my white shirt). Someone eventually helped me out by calling an animal shelter, just when I was running out of options.

Ironically even though my mini adventure involves a dog, it turns I learned more about people today than dogs. I only took sociology or a semester in high school, so I'm not pretending I have any expertise, but I remember studying how people react in groups when someone needs help. The theory is, if someone needs help, and you are the only one around to help, there's a better chance you will than if you were among a crowd and could tell yourself that someone else will do something, so you don't need to bother. The famous case was of a woman calling for help after being stabbed in front of an apartment building. 20 or more people heard her, but no one helped thinking someone else would do something and so she died.

It as interesting to see it in action, all of us looking at this dog running across the parking lot, a disaster waiting to happen, and we all just looked to each other expecting someone else to deal with it. Once I went over to the dog, another woman who had been watching came over, talked with me and held the dog while I re-parked my car, but why did she need to wait for me to make a move before she walked the 10 feet over to the dog? Several people were more than willing to smile at while I was being dragged around by a dog or standing in front of store fronts, and offer meaningless conversation phrases and questions like, "seems like a nice dog doesn't he?" or "he came from around here?" and "good luck!" but you could tell they didn't want to get involved.

And I've just got to say, thank god I don't need to beg for money because I don't think I could deal with the rudeness. I couldn't take the dog into stores because 1) not allowed and 2) the dog seemed really against going anywhere near a door and was surprisingly strong for something so malnourished. So I would ask people going in to stores if they would ask someone inside to make an announcement. I had just come back from getting passport photos taken, so I wasn't dressed like someone who was going to bother you for change, and I addressed everyone as 'sir,' and yet people were still cold and attempted to ignore me. I clearly made eye contact with a clerk at the 99 cent store and attempted to talk to him, and he blatantly ignored me, more than once. I asked one man, and he went inside and I could hear him talking about tools from outside,... not at all what I asked him politely to do.

He eventually came back out, realized I was serious and then went back in to tell someone. Later he recommended I go stand in the shade, and I told him I had tried, so he also made an attempt before giving up, handing me the dog back and taking off again. I have to admit, I was glad to see that he wasn't able to manage either despite the macho attitude.

Perhaps the weirdest part though was, after the store and an animal-loving girlfriend of someone who worked there made the calls and decided to feed and keep the dog till 9 when the animal shelter could pick him up, and they had finally made a makeshift leash they took off and took him away without a word or a glance. No 'thanx' or 'we'll take it from here.' I just stood there like an idiot for a while, and then took off to turn my car in for repairs.

Anyways, this as my little eye opening adventure for today. It may sound a little bitter in the retelling, but honestly it was kind of fun. It was like performing my own little sociology experiment. In the end, sociology guilted me into trying to help out when I may have just driven away, and seeing how people reacted made me want to be less like them even more.

In one last note, isn't it odd that we only talk about anonymity as if it were unique to the net? No one knows me in the Target parking lot, and no one invites being acknowledged. Everyone wants to go about their shopping without having to meet people, and they do. 'Real Life' is already pretty anonymous isn't it?

-N