Be Quick NOT To Judge

Be Quick NOT To Judge Are we quick to form opinions about others? We should not be... How to connect with AgileDad: - [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠ https://www.agiledad.com/ - [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠ https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/ - [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠ https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/ - [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

• 0:16Speaker 00

  It's Friday, so it's time for our Agile, not-so-Agile episode of the Daily Standup Podcast. And today, I want to tell you a story about a dog named Ace. Ace was the kind of dog that a shelter could easily run out time for. He was scared, stressed, and labeled reactive in a county shelter where the noise never really stopped and the pressure kept building. In a system stretched thin, he became another dog on the edge. One more animal whose future seemed to be narrowing by the hour. Then someone decided to look closer.

• 0:54Speaker 00

  A foster stepped forward. A volunteer helped get Ace out. A trainer drove roughly 90 minutes to evaluate him.

• 1:04Speaker 00

  Not in a chaos of a shelter, but in a setting where he could actually be seen for who he was. Not just for what everyone made him look like. And that changed everything. The dog who had been marked as a problem turned out to be something far simpler and far more heartbreaking. The dog who was overwhelmed.

• 1:25Speaker 00

  Once he was out of the kennel and into safety, Ace began to show the world that he was affectionate, calm, and eager to connect. He loved belly rubs. He walked well on a leash. He got along with another dog. And perhaps most telling of all, he stayed close to his foster mom, soaking up the kind of steady attention he had likely gone too long without.

• 1:50Speaker 00

  His euthanasia note was crossed out. That small, active ink and paper carried an enormous weight. It meant the story did not end where it almost did. It meant that a dog that was once defined by fear and limited circumstances was given room to reveal its true self. And in that revelation, something bigger came through.

• 2:14Speaker 00

  A reminder that rescue is often not one dramatic moment, but a series of ordinary people choosing compassion when it would have been easier to just look away.

• 2:27Speaker 00

  Ace's story lingers on because it's about more than saving one dog. It's about the difference between being judged in crisis and being known in safety. It's about how many lives can change when someone pauses long enough to ask, what if this is not the whole story? For Ace, that question was everything.

• 2:53Speaker 00

  This story touched my heart. You know, for those who know me, I'm not a huge animal person. And it's not because I don't want to be, it's because of my allergies. But what I can tell you is this story touched me in a way that I haven't been touched in a long time. Because, you know, part of it had to be the act of compassion for Ace. But I think the bigger part was,

• 3:20Speaker 00

  I've seen so many people who buy pets from breeders.

• 3:27Speaker 00

  And I've seen so many breeders make so much money that they continued in this path of breeding and selling animals over and over and over and over again. And it, it makes me, it breaks my heart. It makes me so sad to know that there are countless animals in shelters and other places that need or deserve your love. And we're spending money instead on the quote unquote, "perfect pet."

• 3:55Speaker 00

  What I can tell you is, this is a story of redemption for Ace, but it should also be a story of redemption for us. I think that in this world, we've been too quick to judge. There are so many people who judge others based on the way they look, the way they dress, who they love, uh, who they worship, who they voted for. There's so much of that going on where we're trying to categorize people and, and dox people and then write people off and just, we're trying to cancel people. And I never understood that mentality. I never understood the mentality of why we have to spread hate and not love. I never understood the mentality of why people make decisions that are critical and hurt other people.

• 4:42Speaker 00

  When they have a chance to give people a second chance. And I've said a lot of times on this podcast and in public. That sometimes people are, are, people are subject to their environment. What I mean by that is. If you take a person out of a specific environment, oftentimes you get a completely different person. But sometimes I think that we are so quick to judge that we don't even allow that to happen.

• 5:09Speaker 00

  So my challenge for you this week is. Stop being judgmental. Start treating people with dignity and respect. And if you're gonna adopt them, if you're gonna get a new animal, a new pet. Don't go to a reader, go to a shelter. Give, give a, give a dog, give an animal, any animal, give an animal a chance. Um, what I can tell you is oftentimes when we're quick to judge. I just know that we'll be quickly judged later. That's gonna do it for this episode. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have a topic you want us to discuss. Learn more at agiledad.com. We'd love to hear from you. And as always, we encourage you to stay healthy, stay well, and stay out of my friends. Until next week, do take care. Bye now.