Imagine

Imagine

Imagine you wake to find yourself on the streets of a large city, hungry and scared. You don't seem to have any connections there, and you don't have any idea of where you fit in. There seem to be two kinds of people on the streets and they don't all talk alike. But some, the minority, seem to have more than enough to eat, and they often throw away leftovers. If you're lucky enough to be around when they throw food away, that's what you eat. If not, your old companion, hunge,r always hovers nearby.

Your leg hurts from a run in with a car, and you limp a little. You wonder if it will ever be much better, but at least you did learn to cross the street when people do to avoid other mishaps with cars.

You've learned there are a few people on the streets who like you--even pet you and feed you scraps. You've learned these are usually same the people who look well fed, and you learn to hang out in the part of town where the kinder people congregate. You like them, but they usually walk away. Your beat is hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions.

You can't remember a family or a real home. You remember a little of your mom, and you haven't seen her in a long time. Your memory is more of her smell and feel than what she really looked like. But that's all in the past now--you really don't expect to see her ever again, and that cute little bunch of brothers and sisters you were with were picked up by men in a truck never to be seen again. You wonder if you were lucky the men missed you that day. When there is little food, you're not so sure you were lucky to have been overlooked.

One day a well fed find man paid far more attention to you than you expected, and your life began to change. That man was a tourist, but he picked you up, gave you food and a temporary home and even a bath and lots of medical care. They made your leg stop hurting. You had changed from street dog to companion animal. You learned you had a name, Fidelity, and your temporary caretakers trained you to a cage and a leash. But after several days you wondered where was the kind man who changed your life?

One day a lady picked you up in a car and drove 2 hours to an airport. There they all seemed to make a fuss over you as papers, tickets, and health certificates were bandied about. Finally, stowed in a travel carrier and accompanied by lots of baggage, you are placed in a pressurized, air-conditioned baggage compartment for a 6 hour long, dark and noisy transfer to Toronto Canada.

You felt a spark of recognition as the kind man met the plane around midnight. Others gathered around including reporters flashing their cameras, and suddenly that strange, far away, inhospitable city became a distant memory.

You had one more long flight from Toronto the New Orleans to reach your new forever home with the kind man where you'll never lack for food or medical care or love and companionship again.

Imagine if all street dogs had a good home.

Les Inglis

PS Fidelity arrives at his new home on the same day as this posting.