The Dog that Saved His Soul

The Dog that Saved His Soul writer’s Cramp

37

One day Jake Lee went jogging
At five in the morning in Suburban Virginia
While he was working in DC with the State Department
And his wife was stationed In San Antonio
serving as a major in the U.S. Army.

He fell down a ledge, shattered his heel
Had to have an emergency operation
Went to San Antonio for the surgery.

His wife has just adopted
A beagle from a rescue pound.

After the initial operation
Jake Lee spent four months
Recovering at home.

The dog at first did not know
What to make of Jake
And Jake also did not know
What to make of the dog.

But soon Jake and the dog bounded
And Jake told the doge everything and the dog
Seemed to understand everything Jake said.

Every day Jake had to get up
On his crutches to feed the dog
Let him outside to do his thing
And to play with the dog.

Jake often pondered who rescued whom
As the dog saved his life preventing him
From slipping into despair and depression
And he helped the dog recover his trust
In the basic goodness of human beings.

The dog helped him deal with the traumatic accident
And several operations, and a staph infection.
Jake finally realized why dogs
Are truly man’s best friend.


In honor of Humane Society Anniversary Day, celebrated on November 22 - write a STORY or POEM titled Who Rescued Who? about someone bringing home a new pet (dog, cat, rabbit, ferret, parrot, guinea pig, etc.) from a local shelter, and how it changed their life for the better. Choose ANIMAL as one of your genres.

Make sure you include your word count for stories (1000 words or less) or a line count for poems (40 lines or less) IN your forum post with the b-item link to your entry to be a qualified entry.


Based loosely on a true story. in the real story, the dog was not a rescue dog. Otherwise, the story is essentially the same, except I ended up in the hospital in WRMC for almost six months after the staph infection came back as a MDR infection and I had 12 more operations. This occurred in 1995-1996. We gave the dog up when we reunited in DC. Too many TDY trips for my spouse, but we missed the dog who really did save me.