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Does this video about an abandoned dog leave you wiping your eyes or shaking your fist?

Casey Baseel Oct 16, 2014
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Generally speaking, I’m not the biggest fan of abstract personality tests. Every now and again, though, something comes around that really seems to shed light on how an individual’s mind works.

For example, if you’re extremely pure-hearted, you might see this short video of a dog reminiscing about the happy days with his former owners as a moving, even tear-jerking story. On the other hand, if you’re a bit more cynical or strict in personality, it might make you want to punch your monitor.

So which camp do you fall into? Read on and see.

The short film, titled Never Say Goodbye, comes courtesy of the Chinese division of pet care giant Nestle Purina, and was made as part of a campaign against animal cruelty. There’s no dialogue, and the onscreen text that tells the story is in both Chinese and English.

As it opens, we see a few scenes of the unnamed dog protagonist, living a happy life with his owners, which of course includes a big bowl of Purina-brand dog food. Things don’t stay that way for long, though, as we’re told, “All the beautiful memories that I have spent together with my owner ended today.”

Yeah, the grammar is a little off. We see that he actually has two owners (a young couple), and I’m not sure about the phrasing of “memories have ended today,” but still, that’s some remarkably good syntax for a dog, especially in light of the emotional trauma he goes through in the video.

See, the couple is expecting their first child, and apparently there’s just no room for a baby and a dog in their roomy, well-appointed home with a back yard. So the husband loads the dog into his nice shiny car and takes him for a ride. Eventually he stops, gets out, and ties the dog to a post before driving off.

▼ You know how sometimes in movies, when someone abandons a dog, they’ll take the animal out to a great big field and shout, “You’re free, boy!”? It doesn’t count if the dog is tied up.

The now former owners were apparently both heartless and cheap, as the dog’s leash soon breaks away. With no home to go back to, though, he instead wanders the city, which miraculously seems to be otherwise populated with kind, generous, animal-lovers. In turn, the dog meets an elderly man, teenage girl, and young boy, all of whom show a lot more compassion and decency than the couple that abandoned him.

Even the dog seems to realize how lucky he is to run into this procession of helpful strangers, and recognizes that some of his new friends would be happy to adopt him. But like an abuse victim who’s so broken he can’t bear to be apart from his former tormentors, all he can think of is how much better the couple he lived with was, as the following musings appear.

“After you left, I met an old man. He patted me gently. It made me miss you so much.”
“One day I met a girl. She was nice to me. But I only thought about you.”
“Like the boy brought me water to drink, but how I wish he were you.”

Things get downright depressing when the dog reflects on being abandoned with, “Maybe it was because I did something wrong.”

Despite the situation being equal parts crushingly sad and maddeningly frustrating, the gentle background music seems to be doing all it can to convince us that these are actually pure and heart-warming, if bittersweet, occurrences. Just before the video closes, Purina implores us to “Help them. Fill the world with love. All the happiness we have, make it last.”

▼ Here’s a little-known tip for making happy relationships last: Don’t leave the other party tied up on the side of the road!

I’m not really sure what the message is supposed to be. Take care of your pets, because they’d be sad without you? Go ahead and treat your dog like garbage, because he’ll still come back for more? The video doesn’t even work as a commercial, since the only people we see using Purina products during it are the irresponsible couple.

▼ Purina! For when you want your pet to be happy…at least until you get bored of him.

The only silver lining here is that at the end of the video, the dog is still alive and healthy, even if he is a stray scavenging for meals in trash bags. He seems to be at peace, though, as he tells his owners, “I believe that someday we’ll meet again. I will never forget you.”

Whether you hear that last line as a tender expression of gratitude, or an iron-clad promise to someday wreak a terrible, terrible vengeance, probably says a lot about you as a person.

Source, images: YouTube
[ Read in Japanese ]