eroded

My female owner realised that she is traumatised by the OM (outrage of modesty; police speak) incident at the placement. She was back at her placement today and definitely queasy whenever she saw that dirty old man. Save for the cursory Aussie greetings (“hi, how are you?”), she avoided him like the plague.

She did a fabulous job of preventing herself from being in a compromised situation with him alone… until the end of the day. Read on to see Murphy’s law in action.

She had just left a resident’s room with the intention of leaving for the day, when of all people who could walk by, it was him. Seeing her, he asked for help…. with something in his room.

My female owner tensed up immediately. Her breathing quickened and she felt uneasy all over again. Reluctantly, she followed him to his room. He needed help in fixing up the board at the foot of his bed. My female owner fumbled her way through this unfamiliar task, being mindful not to turn her back towards him or to allow him to come too near. She was jittery and on high alert.

The board was fixed fairly easily and quickly. Wanting to make a quick escape, she realised to her horror that he was standing between her and the exit. Dirty old man extended his hand towards her. He wanted to shake her hand by way of saying thanks. Oh no. My female owner could just envision history repeating itself.

She hastily took his hand, shook it fast, said “I’ve got to go. See you.”, squeezed past him in the hope that he would not do anything with his hands. Thankfully he didn’t.

It didn’t matter that the offender was old and that his actions were not “invasive” as other forms of sexual harassment. The very fact that your personal space is violated and your sense of safety is eroded lowers the threshold for alarm bells to be set off. Darn the dirty old man.