Sparky
Sparky spent ten years of his life locked in a garage...
...after the novelty of having a dog had worn off.
When Maria got him he was terrified of everything and barked all day long. He bit her, attacked her other dogs, and peed all over her house. But she loved every curl on his little body. Maria has had him a year and he is a much better behaved little man.
And then Maria moved the family to a farm where there was a big field behind the house to explore. Sparky spent hours in the field, nose to the ground, following the scent of something. All Maria could see was Sparky's stubby tail waggling furiously through the overgrown grass. He was following unconcerned little field mice, his nose almost touching their bottoms, never hurting them.
His joy every morning is to run out the front door of her farmhouse, go to the apple tree and find a fallen apple. When he finds an apple every part of his body wiggles, and he runs inside to eat it. The tree has long since stopped dropping apples, so every morning Maria goes out there before Sparky, places an apple under the tree, and watches while he runs around the tree looking for it.
Since his knee has been hurting him, he can't make it all the way to the tree, so now Maria carries him to it. Even though his is ten years old, he loves to run around the farm with the other dogs, and it breaks her heart to see him try to run on his three legs after the other dogs. When he can't go any further because of the pain, he sits down and howls until the other dogs come back. He tries so hard to get around but he suffers for it at night and she has to sit with him with ice on his knee. He is so full of joy and energy it's hard to try to slow him down.
Sometimes when Maria looks at Sparky she cries when she thinks of all the years he spent alone in the darkness. He is never alone now, and they both sleep with a night light on.
You can help AAS pay for knee surgery for Sparky
