DOG EAT GOD

dog eat god

7/07/03---7:37 AM

This morning when I arrived, most of the cages were empty. My current favorite was missing. Hercules is a seven year old doberman who had a crushed front paw that didn't heal right. His cage was empty, his name tag still hanging. Sometimes it is better not to ask. Sad, old dogs do not get adopted.

I am used to death. It doesn't make me sad. If you saw some of the dogs that come in burned, beaten and breed until they are almost dead, you would think that there is something worse then death. I hate to see anything suffer. Each time I go in for my shift I think, today I can't possible see something worse than last time when I looked in on the isolation dogs and saw a pitbull who had lost half of it head in a fight. Then there is the great dane who was so starved you had to layer blankets in his cage so he could lie down and not hurt his bones. Today it was people bringing in old dogs that had nothing wrong with them except they were old. Nobody will ever adopt those dogs. Some people when they get tired of something find it easy to discard. Like the families who beg me for a puppy. The puppy will grow up and then be tied up in the backyard, forgotten.

I found Hercules. He was in the back in quarantine. He had been attacked by another dog while on a walk. He seemed happy to see me. We bonded, him and I. It is only a matter of time before he goes down, but I was happy to see him today.