07-10-2017, 12:20 AM
(07-09-2017, 06:29 PM)Catherine Wrote: If you were not sure there is abuse going on, it would be easy to make a general offer to look after the pet(s) if the woman ever needs to be away.
Yes that would be an ideal way to approach it. It is also diplomatic, but the person would know there was temporary safety offered for the animals.
One has to be so careful not to upset a victim of domestic abuse. It is a volatile situation.
When I was about 20 and lived in London, I heard a terrible screaming coming from a neighbour's ground floor flat. A Caribbean family lived there. The door was open so I went in carefully. The husband had beaten his wife then gone out. She was crying and hurt. Her little boy (about two years old) was standing shaking all over with fear. I calmed him down and got him into another room, and turned on the TV. Fortunately there were cartoons playing. He relaxed and sat to watch it.
Then I went back to the woman, who was so grateful for someone coming to help. I was very gentle with her but suggested she found some safe place to go right there and then, and get a doctor to see her. Then she turned on me quite viciously, and screamed at me to get out and leave her and her family alone.
There really was nothing more I could do. I told her where her little boy was, and that he was a bit better now. Then I had to go.
