A couple weeks ago, my husband called me on my lunch hour to tell me that he hadn't gone to work. It seemed odd, as he had been awake when I left for work that morning, and for all that I knew he had absolutely intended to go. The strange thing had detained him was not that he had fallen ill, that our house had burned down, or our car had broken down.
No, what had prevented him from going to work was a trail of bloody paw prints tracking across the white cement of the sidewalk in front of our house. They are still there, in fact, although the blood has since dried.
My husband is a man who has an extreme affinity for animals. He loves animals and takes unfriendly creatures as a personal challenge.
He could not walk away from a hurt animal, evidenced as it was by the wet blood leading down our street.
He followed the paw prints.
He ended up on a strange sort of journey, on that warm May day. He followed the prints and eventually ended up on the front yard of our former neighbor's house, a few miles from our house, that she shares with her girlfriend, who happened to be home. (We've not been there before- nor did we know where they live). He hunted for over an hour and a half, until he lost the trail through an alley. By this time, he was tired and it was hot, so he took a bus back home.
Sitting on our front porch, he spoke to others who added to the story. People walking their dogs, or pushing their strollers shared pieces of the story. One woman said that a dog walker, the dog walker that the swanky people, the rich ones, use had lost a dog. The dog leapt from a window of the dog walker's van, she said. He injured his paws and ran in fear.
Later this theory was called into dispute, as others among our neighbors believe that dog was dragged from the van, and then wrenched free- the blood from his paws seeped for a couple miles. This theory has gained prominence among our neighbors.
We didn't hear anything more until last week. One of our neighbors came with a photo of the dog, recovered by his owner.
An oddly satisfying ending to the story- Richard never found the dog, though we did finally find out the ending to the story when the photo came to us. The dog was hit by a car, whose driver took him to a vet. They called the dog's owner who came to claim him. He is doing well, although all four paws were bandaged in the photo that is being passed around those animal lovers in our neighborhood.
Strange, to see genuine concern in a stranger's face as they tell this story again and again. There is no blame, in most of these faces. Simply concern, for the dog and his owner. Strange to feel part of a community in this rather odd way.
No comments:
Post a Comment