Man’s Best Friend – It Pays to Return the Favor

This is an oldie but goodie. In case you’ve never read it, here it is.

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.

He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.

After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.

When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.
When he was close enough, he called out, ‘Excuse me, where are we?’

‘This is Heaven, sir,’ the man answered. ‘Wow! Would you happen to have some water?’ the man asked.
Of course, sir. Come right in, and I’ll have some ice water brought right up.? The man gestured, and the gate began to open.

‘Can my friend,’ gesturing toward his dog, ‘come in, too?’ the traveler asked. ‘I’m sorry, sir, but we don’t accept pets.’
The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.

After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.

‘Excuse me!’ he called to the man. ‘Do you have any water?’ ‘Yeah, sure, there’s a pump over there, come on in.’

‘How about my friend here?’ the traveler gestured to the dog. ‘There should be a bowl by the pump.’

They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it. The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog. When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree.

‘What do you call this place?’ the traveler asked. ‘This is Heaven,’ he answered..

‘Well, that’s confusing,’ the traveler said. ‘The man down the road said that was Heaven, too?’

‘Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That’s hell.’

‘Doesn’t it make you mad for them to use your name like that?’

‘No, we’re just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.’

“For those who love dogs, it would be the worst form of a lie to call any place where dogs were banned “Paradise.” Certainly no loving God would separate people from their canine friends for eternity.” ~ Stanley Coren, dog psychologist

Lovable and Looking

There’s an email that’s been doing the rounds now for years. It shows a singles ad that was reportedly listed in the Atlanta Journal, which in fact isn’t true. Someone sent it to me again recently. Read it first, then I’ll give my comments.

“SINGLE BLACK FEMALE seeks male companionship, ethnicity unimportant. I’m a very good girl who LOVES to play. I love long walks in the woods, riding in your pickup truck, hunting, camping and fishing trips, cozy winter nights lying by the fire. Candlelight dinners will have me eating out of your hand. I’ll be at the front door when you get home from work, wearing only what nature gave me. Call and ask for Daisy, I’ll be waiting……

Please scroll down.”

Photo is courtesy of Lisa D, of Barrie, Ontario.

While this is admittedly rather funny, please take it for what it is – a joke! I’m all for getting people’s attention when it comes to pet rescue but an ad of this sort is not likely to attract the right kind of pet parent – someone who makes an informed choice after careful deliberation.

The Rescuer’s Creed

I promise I will take your unwanted animals.
I will heal their wounds, their diseases, their broken bones.
I will give them the medical attention they need and deserve.
I will nurture their starvation and give them a warm place to sleep.
I will spay and neuter them, vaccinate them against the diseases that can harm them.
I will treat them and honor them.
I will buy them toys, blankets, balls, and teach them to play.
I will speak softly to them.
I will try to teach them not to fear, not to cry, and not to hate.
I will whisper sweet, kind, gentle words into their ears, while gently trying to stroke their fear, their pain, and their scars away.
I will face their emotional scars and give them time to overcome them.
I will socialize them, potty train them, teach them to be obedient, show them dignity, and hold their paws, and stroke their ears if they have endured too much and walk them over the Rainbow Bridge, BUT most of all I will teach them LOVE.
Author Unknown

Saving Angel

I’m going to start with Angel. Because, after all, that’s what this blog is really about.

She must have been another warm, cuddlesome, adorable puppy. And another one of all too many who end up with some unmitigatingly mean, heartless or just plain ignorant human. I don’t know much about the bastard who took Angel as a happy yet helpless pup. Who broke her bones, destroyed her trust, then left her to starve to death. I do know there’s a bench warrant out for his arrest. I know the odds of that warrant ever being served are absolutely minimal. I know that if the warrant is served, punishment will be barely more than a slap on the wrist; nothing that will remotely fit the crime. And I also know that the odds of him abusing, and slowly and deliberately destroying other creatures is very high.

Anyway, we’ll get to more of that another time. As I said earlier, this is about Angel.

Sometime around the eighth month of their lives, Angel and her sister were rescued from their living hell by Southern Hope Humane Society in Roswell, Georgia. Both pups were near-dead from starvation but one was in even more desperate condition. Pressed into the corner of her torture chamber (a chain link dog kennel with no shelter from the elements), the body emaciated, skin laying loosely over the skeleton, the head seeming too big to be on those thin shoulders, her body was not only battered but horribly broken. Her rescuers didn’t know it at first but the “bastard” must have beaten her so severely that she had a broken hip and leg, for which she had received no treatment.

Something else was different about this little pup…….. her eyes; after all the savage cruelty and depravation, in the eyes there was still just a glimmer of hope.

I wasn’t there when Angel was found but I know those eyes well now. I’ve studied the images of that sweet, sad face and I’ve read a host of things in those eyes – fear, resignation, misery, pleading and, yes, hope. That, together with an innate will to survive and the tender ministrations of the folk at Southern Hope rescue saved her life. Her broken leg was mended. The hip had already begun to calcify (imagine how long she must have suffered with that pain) so was left alone. Her flesh began to fill out.

Don’t be misled, though. For Angel, the rescue and rehab were both painful and frightening, yet she never showed even the slightest aggression. Only ever offered a grateful lick or wag of the tail and was always an angel. Hence her name.

Now came the truly hard part – learning to trust, building confidence, becoming a normal, happy dog in a normal, happy family. Stacey Hall, president of Southern Hope Humane Society, deserves much credit for starting Angel on this journey. She took Angel into her own home to rehabilitate with her family and her dogs. At the same time, Angel had more help when along came Vincent.

Vincent is a miniature poodle of seemingly good pedigree and certainly noble heart who became Angel’s best friend and constant guardian. No-one knows his past; he simply turned up one day, a little thin, flea-infested and instantly attracted to Angel.

I first saw Angel and Vinny when they were featured together in a newspaper article – This Love’s Bred to be True – and knew instantly that they belonged with my husband and me. A few months earlier we had said goodbye to our much-loved Muttley, who left this life at the age of 16, and we were very ready to fill the emptiness that his death left behind. So I went to meet both dogs at a pet-adoption event. Vinny crawled straight into my lap. Angel was too traumatized to come out of her cage but lay curled in the corner doing her best to hide, so I crawled part way in to pet her. When she looked at me with those expressive eyes I was even more certain that our connection was meant to be.

Adoption proceedings weren’t simple. Southern Hope is very thorough in vetting potential “moms” and “dads”. About 10 agonizing days passed before word arrived that my husband and I were apparently acceptable parents. I say “apparently” because the adoption was not official until our home had been viewed by Stacey as well as Angel and Vincent. Happily, we were given a four-paws up and the twosome moved in.

The story doesn’t end here. Stay tuned to read: Angel’s Story; Life At Home.

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