And once again, our dog’s howling makes us look like horrible people.

If Gunther comes out on errands, he’s usually fine with being left in the car, especially when there’s only one of us. But sometimes, when both of us walk away from him, he decides he’s missing a great party, and starts to bark and sometimes howl.

Hearing it, you’d think he’d been locked in that car for a week, not three minutes as is usually the case.

Well aware of how dangerous a hot car can be, we don’t take him out during the hottest part of the day, we always park in the shade with the rear windows completely open, and if it’s still hot, we rarely leave him for more than a few minutes.

A good judge of the heat for me is, if I was waiting in the car, would I be OK with the windows down or would I close them and put on the AC?

The day we got into “trouble”, we’d left him in a parking garage, out of the sun, with both rear windows down. As we walked away, I think he couldn’t see us through the tint, so barked a little. We waited until he quietened and then left for our shopping.

When we got back to the car, there were two pieces of paper under the wipers. One was a handwritten noted that said, leaving a dog in the car when it was 100F was messed up (they actually used a slightly different phrase). “He was howling! Be responsible!” it exhorted.

The other was a pamphlet expatiating on the dangers of leaving a dog in a hot car in the sun. “If you think you’ll have to leave your dog in the car even for a short time,” it said, “leave him or her at home!”

Now sure, at some point that day the temperature had hit 100F — but now, in the early evening, it was much cooler. And yes, a car in the sun with windows closed will heat up very quickly, but not so much in a darkened parking garage, with the windows down.

And as for leaving him at home ... after two weeks in a motel, we’d finally found a house on rent and had moved in the night before. He was uneasy at all the upheaval and we knew that leaving him in a strange place for two hours would be vastly more stressful than leaving him in the car for 30 minutes. Seeing him sleeping peacefully in the back as we were stuck for an hour in traffic on the way back, we knew that we’d made the right choice.

This is what annoys me about self-righteousness. That people see what they want to see and then go ahead to make assumptions and accusations. The note was unsigned, but the pamphlet was from a local shelter. No doubt this person does a lot of great work, and sees a lot of neglected animals — it must be heartbreaking at times. But, if you’re talking about greenhouse effect and 100F in a darkened parking garage towards evening, and can’t identify an attention-seeking howl, then I think you’re leaving notes just to feel better about yourself.

My patience with self-obsession masquerading as conscientiousness has worn thin these days. It’s the quintessential annoying Facebook post, the competitive party person, the unsolicited office lecturer. It’s commendable that you carry with you notices warning dog owners about the heat in cars, but every time you put one under a windscreen wiper, ask yourself, “Is this one for the dog or for me?”

Gautam Raja is a journalist based in Los Angeles, USA.