Lucy
Our first dog
I was three years old when we got our first dog. Through a collection of my own memories, and those my mother told me, I remember the day well. Another family did not want her-- a beagle mix that hadn't yet reached a year old. But, for a puppy so young, she came with an abundance of problems. She had a broken leg that rendered her helpless, and hindered everything she did. She wore a cone around her head and wore a plastic bag around the leg every time she wanted outside. "An accident," the family told us. But the longer she stayed in our house, the more apparent her fear became. She slinked around us, cowering at my father's voice, running away when my sister and I played. She'd been in 3 homes before ours. For months, it was like she wouldn't let herself become comfortable with us, like she was afraid that she would have to move to the next family. She'd been unwanted for so long.
She lived in our house for fifteen years. I like to think she was happy with us. We loved her as much as we could, but her distance was lifelong. The years before us, as a puppy without love, a puppy that was probably abused, affected her entire life. I was three years old when I learned that people could be cruel. However, it wasn't until many years later that I understood it.
I like to think she was lucky to find us. She got a good home, with people that loved her, and all the food and treats she could ever want. But there are still many animals that are not lucky.
In 2008, a St. Bernard dog chewed off her own leg to escape a cord she'd been entangled in. In Ohio, 2008, a dog underwent surgery to have a chain removed from its neck-- the result of being chained up for weeks on end. Several were doused in flammable fluid and burned to death. It can come in the form of animal testing, abuse, and neglect, but it is not limited to just those. From Lucy, my spunky but damaged beagle mix, to the animals I see in shelters, animal cruelty is still a frequent occurrence. Each year, 67,000 animals are subjected to animal testing, over a million are abused, and millions are neglected-- but thousands more go unreported (Humane Society).
It's stories like these that make me so, so angry. The law is not good enough for them. They don't deserve a few months jail time, a slap on the wrist, or a fine. They deserve to suffer the same way they made those animals suffer. It's injustice, plain and simple. And sometimes, in the wake of such knowledge, it is hard to not feel helpless.
But when I look at my dog curled army feet, the puppy my sister recently adopted, the formally stray cats that make a home on our beds, I know that they have good lives. Maybe we even saved them from worse fates.
One person, one animal's life; it makes a difference. Go home, pet your dog, snuggle your cat, stare at your fish. Know that you made a difference for them. Go out and adopt a pet from a shelter, one that didn't know love before you. Donate to the shelters so they can continue to save strays and abused animals. Don't stand by blind and silent. Know the signs of neglect and abuse, because you can be sure, it's still out there.
Oakley: The 4 month old Tucker: The two year old (handsome) boy Sophie: the 7
rescue puppy from a Detroit from a Wayne County shelter year old cat,
animal shelter found on an
overpass
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