Dog Gone

Lost and Abandoned

I can sit. I can fetch a ball. I can wag my tail and lick your face. I will do anything you want me to do if you come back. After days, as I know them, passed and the nights were colder, I wondered if I was going to die here, all alone. I am only six months old and alone. I feel much older!  The abandoned little brown dog with a collar with a little tinkle bell said to no one in particuar, "I'm so frightened." His owners and their kids hardly played with him except sometimes fetch. "Oh look! There’s a man with a truck! Maybe he knows where I belong. Hey!" the pup called out with his tiny voice, "I'm over here, please take me home!"

I spied someone coming toward me and I knew he didn't look friendly. Why was the nasty looking man choking me with some wire that goes though a long pole? It hurt, and he told me, "You're gonna die!" I am tossed into a horrible cage, smelling like old poop and pee, in a truck with a few other poor souls. I wondered what horrible things will happen next.

There was a cat in a trap and he cried pitifully because his foot was broken. He told me , "I have been bounced around back here all day and I am in real pain!" He squealed that he was picked up at daylight from the highway. It was already late afternoon, the puppy told the suffering cat. How long is that to be jostled about in so much pain? I said to nobody who cared, "Oh no! Are they going to break my foot too?" I cried, I cried, I cried, and wished I knew how to pray, but don't know if God is around here.

Finally, we stopped for the man to do what he needed to do, whatever that was. He came back with a box of small kittens, too young to be away from their mom. They were too little to mew very loud. “Poor babies,” I said. I saw one whose eye was barely opened and gave him a lick. I promised the terrified kittens we would all be alright, Someone had made a mistake, they would take care of us and soon we would be warm, fed, and someone will find our owners.

Where we ended up smelled of urine, feces and lots and lots of blood, death, and hopelessness. The mean man dragged me with that wire around my neck down a concrete walkway that had cages with dogs and puppies crying for help. I knew I would never see my owner again. Why did he abandon me? Why do the other animals' owners abandon them? He shoved me into a cage with only a wire gate and surrounded by something cold and hard. The floor hurt so badly, I thought my feet would bleed.

I would love to find all of the owners. I would let them know how badly and cruelly    people have treated all of us, not just me --- all of us. We suffer every moment of every day when we are treated this way.

When a dog or cat is pulled out of the truck, I heard the dogs in here whisper things to other dogs being dragged by the metal wire or a horrible dog being carried in a cage. The dogs in the cages that  knew weren't getting out alive shouted , “Dead Dog Walking, when a dog or puppies were dragged through the door to be killed. Then they all laughed even though they knew their time would come soon enough. It wasn't funny.

It’s not knowing I am going to die, I feel that I am already dead. Just being here makes me feel sick. Whatever these people clean with burns the pads of my feet and my lungs. I can’t breathe. and I've barked until my voice is gone, "Oh Please! Let me out of here! I don’t care where I go." I screamed as loud as my weak voice would allow.

If I could talk to my owner, I would beg him to let me stay at home and I would promise not to chase the cat or jump on the sofa. We animals all want the same things out of this life. We all want and need nurturing, love, warmth, food, someone to play with and tell them they are, “Good!" Once I had that feeling, but not anymore.

The majority of the other prisoners told me about going from being a "Good Dog," then cruelly abandoned because you are not wanted. I told them it was all a mistake. Our owners would come soon. The pet overpopulation, neglect and cruelty runs much deeper and worse than most people know. An innocent puppy and others like me don't understand what is happening. No one reports it or even cares. The humans feel the world belongs to them, so why care about any other creatures? It’s reached a point that things are getting worse.

I found out lots of decent folks have to turn in pets they’ve loved  for years. It is because the owners don't have enough money to to feed their dear pet, some animals come in shaking and wearing little doggie clothes.Those are the ones to go first because the owner signed a wavier. The pup was now shelter property for as long as it takes to stick a needle in her and others.

A very nice lady brought in her little dog because she couldn’t afford to feed Ginger anymore, and she came to this horrible shelter. Ginger sobbed all night and no one slept, which is almost impossible anyway. I am so scared and know I am going to be killed like all of the others.

Animals depend on people, but we are often forgotten, Isn’t it time for someone to help them? Why don't people become active with the shelters and SPCAs. Donate as much as they can and volunteer to help with programs in school and fundraisers. Where are the Girl Scouts and Boyscouts? They can help. Anybody can help. Please help us, somebody!
         
"What ever happened to that sad little brown puppy with the bell on her collar?" Asked one of the employees taking care of them on just donations, "Chances are, he picked up one of the many deadly  diseases and wasted away. More than likely he was put to sleep with over 97% of the others," she continued."He never stood a chance, even at birth," sighed the young lady,"Puppies are thrown in abandoned areas, left to starve to death for who knows why? The amount of people causing or not preventing the problem of animal cruelty and neglect can't all be mean and evil?  Those evil people will never stop. Technically, they are all criminals. It is illegal."

That day was the last sunlight the brown puppy felt. Oh and the brown puppy was not only pretty and sweet, he was a full blooded lab with papers whose owner just didn't want him around anymore. Maybe the man didn't care about his pet, but what's the difference? The end is usually the same. They don't live long.

What are we doing about the way we treat our pets when we dump them off to starve or die in a squalid shelter? The brown puppy, and the other caged and scared animals, pray to God for help. "Maybe God doesn't care, either," the puppy said out loud.

"Where was that little lab puppy, so sweet and cute? Maybe he has a home with his own bed, toys and kids to play with," said one of the helpers. But she knew the odds are always against a happy ending in a dog pound or shelter.

footnote: 

The little dog didn’t make it out. He was at the shelter for three days, and he was in perfect health and wearing his little jingle collar when he was euthanized

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