At What Age Do We Grow an Attitude?

As I walked home today I was approached by a strange man claiming his dog had wandered into my apartment complex. Having just watched a video the night before about being wary of people who claim they need help, when in reality they take advantage of people who like to be helpful (ie me). I brushed away the feeling that he might be a murderer when I saw that look on his face. You know the one. Puffy eyelids, red eyes, avoiding eye contact. He had been crying, all because he had spent the last few hours looking for his lost dog.

After looking around my much too complicated apartment complex we figured out we thought we heard his dog barking from inside an apartment on the third floor. When we went upstairs to kindly ask the residents if they had found a lost dog we were met with unanswered knocks, what sounded like dogs being forced to be quiet and finally an attitude would make any of the Kardashians look like saints.

What I couldn't understand was, why was this total stranger being so rude to us? Sure, we assumed we heard his dog barking inside their apartment, but we also gently knocked, asked politely if they had found a dog recently and made no point of entering the unit without their permission. After too many vulgar words were said to us and a few doors slammed, the man decided to call the police and let them handle it. By this point we had heard people inside the apartment speak in Spanish about his dog being locked inside a room.

As I sat on the sidelines though most of this I wondered, at what age do we grow an attitude? I can be bossy, sassy and sometimes downright mean, but I rarely have an attitude. My mood swings generally have a reason, whether it's stress or impatience, and I cant think of a time I took of my frustration on a stranger.

I could have easily blown this man off and let him figure it out for himself, but I decided to end the phone call I was on and run around my apartment building shouting "Rambo" in hopes of figuring out where his dog's barks were coming from. Maybe the couple inside the apartment was having an off day or were in the middle of an argument when we knocked, but in my opinion, that doesn't excuse the lack of sympathy they had towards a person standing in tears at their door asking if they had seen a small black chihuahua recently.

I honestly can't begin to figure out what is causing people today to give "zero fucks" about strangers, but I would be interested to know at what age should I assume that there's a good chance someone might be having a "off day." I cant remember of a single day in my childhood where I thought I was having an "off day," so maybe our days aren't so "off" after all, maybe it's just our perspective.