What a Tailless Puppy Taught Me About Thanksgiving
We are currently fostering a mom dog and her five puppies. The other day, my wife noticed that one of the puppies didn’t have a tail and, unlike the other four, she couldn’t tell if it had a butthole.
So, my wife brought this puppy to the vet; they shaved its backside, and everything turned out to be okay. No tail. Lots of fur. Everything normal.
When I told her that was a crazy reason to take a dog to the vet, she reminded me that it would have been crazy not to.
In her mind, there were at least three reasons I was wrong:
She goes to the vet multiple times per week with a constant stream of rescue dogs.
Having no tail could be a sign of other issues.
A few months ago, we had a litter of foster puppies, and one of them was born with atresia ani (without a butthole). It was a big deal1.
I bring this up because, when thinking about the absurdity of the situation, I realize the same kind of thinking often applies to how we approach everything.
In his blog post, “No One is Crazy,” Morgan Housel included a few of my favorite quotes on the topic:
“A lot of decisions are statistically wrong but intuitively right for the person making them.”
“Be careful taking cues from other people when you have no idea what they’re thinking.”
“No one is crazy, including you. But everyone justifies actions based on poor reasoning, including you.”
What makes sense to my wife in this situation didn’t make sense to me, and likely wouldn’t make sense to most people. But that doesn’t mean she was wrong.
Keep this in mind as you gather with your friends and family this Thanksgiving.
That one person who says you need to buy the dip in crypto has probably been reading about four-year cycles on social media and has a vested interest in the eventual recovery.
The person who says the AI bubble is about to pop may have gotten blown up in the dot-com bubble and vowed never to let that happen again.
The person who disagrees with your politics intuitively believes he is correct and probably won’t be swayed by your arguments.
The teenager across from you, wearing weird clothes, saying weird words, listening to weird music, and watching weird shows, thinks you are absolutely insane.
Everyone’s reasoning makes sense to them, even when it doesn’t make sense to us. Thanksgiving is a lot easier when we remember that.
On a personal note, this year I have a lot to be thankful for. I get to spend most of my time with clients, colleagues, family, and friends, who I love. I get to write these notes. I get to nerd out on topics I’m insanely passionate about. My family is healthy, and my parents are in town visiting. I couldn’t ask for more. So from my family to yours, happy Thanksgiving.
The mom - Serena
The front side of the above puppy.
For dogs, the odds of being born with atresia ani are very low. According to Google, 119 similar cases were observed among 1.6 million dogs. Analytically, it is safe to assume we will never foster enough dogs to see it again.
Happy 🦃 Day !!
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