Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, a holiday that has always been one of my favorites. It’s a time of renewal and hopeful warmer days. This past week we celebrated the first anniversary of acquiring Winnie, the puppy I brought home after a visit to our local Winn Dixie. Hard to believe a year has gone by and Winn will always remind me of springtime. Sadly, we are losing our Winn Dixie to another chain next month and in this rural area this will bring about some major adjustments for many. It will be a long summer.
The other day I was cooking dinner on a rainy late afternoon. The four dogs were flopping in their favorite spots. I’ve gotten into learning how to improve my singing voice so I had my Mac on the counter with a YouTube voice coach giving tips on projection and breathing exercises. This is definitely outside the box for me, but it’s very enjoyable and improves posture, breathing and intent. Cooking, dogs, singing. It was a “small” moment filled with contentment and one that shows me how far I’ve come in adapting to change since my early days of widowhood.
Although I’ve written extensively about the dog-human bond for over a decade, I never thought I’d have four and I cetainly didn’t do that intentionally. Over the years here, I’ve written about how each of them came to be part of my life and how I believe when the time is right, so is the dog. They just seem to arrive.
There are a lot of homeless and stray dogs in this part of the nation. On any given day there is a posting online by someone who has taken in a dog found roaming the dirt roads and local highways. Some are truly missing and reclaimed by caring owners, others have been dumped, abandoned for any given reason.
The other day I saw a post of a female dog found not far from here. She could be Jackson’s twin and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was actually one of his nine littermates. She was helplessly wandering before taken in by a woman who noticed the dog was limping.
In short order, a trip to the vet confirmed this sweet dog was very near to giving birth and that she had been shot in the leg. After delivering her pups, surgergy was performed to amputate part of her injured leg.The pups are being homed and momma will stay with her rescuer permanently.
The next day I saw another post from a couple just down the road from me. They’d rescued two dogs and two puppies from a pond on their road. Apparently someone had thrown them into the water perhaps hoping they’d drown or be consumed by alligators?
For every person that has no compassion there so many more that do.
Another happy outcome was reported that this female dog had also given birth to a litter soon after her rescue and all dogs and pups were taken in by an animal sanctuary in Southern Florida. Momma is now living a good life with her rescuers and maybe she and Jackson can meet some day.
Each day I put away some change, could be a dollar, two, maybe three. It adds up and by the end of three months it could be nearly $200.00. I like to use that money to make a donation to help a bit at the end of each quarter of the year. This month one of my donations was to help with that poor dog’s surgery and I will choose another recipient soon.
Those bits of “small change” add up and I think that even if it helps in the smallest of ways, to the lives it improves it is immense and immeasurable. Never doubt the power of small steps, small change and small moments.
A blessed Easter and spring holiday season to all.
