Chapter 17 - Ambrose’s Childhood
Ambrose’s history emerged in therapy and sentencing evaluation.
His father raised hunting dogs.
Kennels everywhere.
Ambrose grew up working around animals before school.
His father believed fear was:
“selfish.”
If Ambrose was afraid of a horse, he was put on horse.
Afraid of deep water, thrown in.
Afraid of dark shed, left with flashlight.
Not unusual for his era and setting.
Still formative.
One story:
At nine, Ambrose refused to enter a dog run after a shepherd snapped at him.
His father shut him inside the empty run for an hour.
“Nothing can hurt you in an empty cage.”
Ambrose eventually stopped crying.
He later told story as funny.
It had become proof:
I survived.
Therefore method works.
That is how cruelty travels.
Not always through people who enjoyed it.
Sometimes through people who need what happened to them to have been useful.
If it was useful, they were trained.
If it was wrong, they were hurt.
Ambrose preferred trained.
Then repeated.
Understanding this did not make me want Callum near him.
It made me understand why an intelligent man could look at a terrified seven-year-old and call confinement education.
He was defending his own childhood through my son.
May you like
Callum never volunteered for that role.
────────────────────
