Who are the Assholes in Your Neighborhood?

I recently read that the human mind is naturally inclined to dwell on the negative because in prehistoric times humans needed to be ready for danger. Life-threatening dangers were greater at that time, of course. I need to remind myself whenever my own negative thoughts make me feel guilty, which typically leads to my remembering a certain narcissistic sociopath ex-frenemy going off on me for being so negative… even though she’s a thousand times more negative than I.

My mind keeps replaying the two people who were rude and callous when I knocked on their doors in my neighborhood. I stood with a missing cat flyer and a cat carrier, because my dear companion is lost.

The first rude asshole lives at the first house I visited — the one closest to the small neighborhood park. I’m glad I spoke to his polite British gardener first. I scanned the landscaping, half expecting to see Virginia in one of the trees or bushes, as I approached the front door, knocked, and waited on the porch.

When he answered the door, his white lab stood beside him and sniffed at me. I was tempted to pet the dog, but I remembered COVID-19 can spread if you touch an animal someone else touched, so I refrained. Plus my mind was focused on my cat Virginia, not on a strange dog. I remember he was kind of good looking, like a long-faced George Clooney who…