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Exceptions (I Can Make You Hate Me by Telling You I Don’t Care About Dogs Left in Cars on Hot Days)

February 5, 2026 5 Comments

By Murgatroyd Monaghan

And it’s okay, I understand, because when I was a child I had a child, and I was alone with that child in a hot car, except it wasn’t a car it was a basement, and it wasn’t hot, it was cold, and I wasn’t alone with the baby, because they sent men down to us and told me to make them happy, one after the other after the other, except they weren’t happy, they were miserable, and except I wasn’t a dog, because if I was a dog, somebody, on glimpsing my frightened eyes, might have tried to save me.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kerri says

    February 6, 2026 at 10:03 pm

    Powerful. Wow. So good.

    Reply
  2. Ruth Rosenhek says

    February 8, 2026 at 7:31 pm

    If that is a true story, I am so sorry and if not, very sad story. I like how you use the dog in the hot car and then move to the child in the cold room, a clever way of bringing the trauma in. Well done.

    Reply
  3. Mike Keyser says

    February 9, 2026 at 3:34 pm

    Powerful and so timely.

    Reply
  4. Karen Uttien says

    February 10, 2026 at 7:43 pm

    So well written. Heartbreakingly real.

    Reply
  5. Julia says

    February 11, 2026 at 7:04 pm

    Wow. So moving and well written. Very powerful.

    Reply

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