John R Purcell

Usually the news on television and in the daily newspapers is full of the most shocking and depressing events that are taking place everywhere. When the local television stations break into a news program with the announcement, "This Just In", it will probably be a report about some violent crime or a disaster of some kind. Though all of this is very depressing, the news stories that bother me the most are those about the abuse and cruel treatment of animals. There seems to be more of this than we realize and I would hope that anyone found guilty of this would receive the most severe punishment that can be inflicted.

Even though most of the news seems to be bad news, occasionally we will read or hear about something that is nice to hear about for a change, especially if it involves animals. A couple of news stories like that come to mind that appeared in the local newspaper recently and I myself happened upon a situation that was rather unique and showed me that good things do happen.

One of the news stories involved a high ranking official of a nearby town who was out jogging one morning. A woman, his neighbor, was also out walking her little Jack Russel terrier at the same time. Suddenly a large dog, a stray pit bull, appeared and attacked the small dog. The man heard the woman's scream for help and he rushed to give her help. The pit bull had his jaws clamped on the little dog's neck but the man grabbed the pit bulls head and managed to free the little dog from its grasp. Without considering the risk that he took that the pit bull would turn on him, the jogger did not hesitate to go to the little dog and, probably saved it's life.

The other news story that I mentioned did not involve any such heroics but was equally pleasant to read about. The employees of the County Juvenile Detention Center had been feeding a stray dog that had been hanging around. They noticed that it would then wander off into the nearby woods. One day, one of the employees, who was knowledgeable about such things, noticed that the dog, a female, was evidently nursing a litter of pups because it appeared to be full of milk. Some of the people searched the woods for the litter but failed to find the pups. One of the employees then suggested that they use one of the electronic monitoring devices they use to keep track of some of their prisoners, to track the dog when it went off into the woods. The plan worked as planned and a litter of four puppies was found and they and the mother were taken to a shelter. Some readers of the news story saw pictures of the pups and offered to adopt them as soon as they were ready to leave the mother. To make it even better, the mother dog was adopted by one of the employees. It would be nice to hear about more stories like this and less about the abuse and cruelty to animals.

The incident that I personally was part of is not as dramatic as these stories but it is typical of the kindness and loving care that some people bestow on their pet animals.

I often encounter a neighbor lady walking her dog in the morning. In addition to the dog she walked, she also had several other small dogs and cats at home. One morning I met her but instead of walking the dog, she was pushing a baby stroller. When I got close enough to speak, I said, "I see you're taking the baby for a stroll this morning".

"It's not a baby," she replied, "it's a dog".

I must have looked surprised to hear that as she quickly added, "It's crippled and can't walk".

The baby stroller has a screen canopy over it and I leaned over to look into it and there looking back at me was this cute tiny face of a Pekingese dog. It seems that the dog, which I learned was quite old, had fallen off a bed and injured its spine resulting in paralysis of its rear legs. At home the little dog used a small wheel chair type of apparatus which enabled him to move about more comfortably.

In a situation like this, considering the age of the little dog, you would not fault the owners if they thought it best to put the dog down, but they did not do that. They willingly went to the trouble to provide the best loving care they possibly could to their beloved little dog. If this doesn't bring a tear to your eyes, or at least produce a smile, you are not an animal lover.