"Once I was a lonely dog just looking for a home. I had no place to
go, no one to call my own. I wandered up and down the streets in rain,
in heat, in snow. I ate whatever I could find, I was always on the go.
My skin would itch, my feet were sore, and my body ached with pain.
No one stopped to give me a pat or gently say my name. I never saw a
loving glance, I was always on the run. For people thought that hurting
me was really lots of fun.
Then one day I heard a voice so gentle, kind and sweet, with arms so
soft that reached down to me and took me off my feet. “No one again will
hurt you,” was whispered in my ear. “You’ll have a home to call your
own where you will know no fear.”
“You will be dry, you will be warm, you’ll have enough to eat. And
rest assured that when you sleep, your dreams will all be sweet.” I was
afraid, I must admit, I’ve lived so long in fear. I can’t remember the
last time when I let a human come so near.
As she tended to my wounds and bathed and brushed my fur, she told me about this “rescue group” and what it meant to her.
She said, “we are a circle, a line that never ends.. In the center of
it, there is you protected by new friends. All around you are the ones
that check the pounds, and those who share their homes with you after
you’ve been found.”
“All the other folks are searching near and far, to find the perfect
home for you, where you can be a star.” She said, “there is a family,
they are waiting very patiently, and pretty soon we’ll find them, just
you wait and see.”
“And then they’ll join our circle, they’ll help to make it grow, so there’ll be room for more like you who have no place to go.”
I waited very patiently. They days, they came and went. Today is the
day, I kept on thinking, my family will be sent. Then just when I began
to think it wasn’t meant to be, there were people standing there gazing
down at me.
“I could tell they felt it, too, for a special dog like you.”
Now every night I say a prayer to all the Gods that be. Thank you for
the life I live and all you’ve given me. But most of all, protect the
dogs in the pounds and in the streets. And send a Rescue Person to them
to lift them off their feet."
~Arlene Pace
