I live in South Surrey.
Nice house, nice backyard, nice garage, nice fence.
The man in my life gives me food and water and a toy or two.
I think I have a name, but since it is not used more than once a year
or so, I forget what it is.
I am probably a senior by now, as I must have spent quite a few years
at this address.
I know what the word 'companion' means, but I am not one, even if I had
desperately hoped, when I was a puppy, that I would become one.
It was not to be.
I own a collar and I may have owned a leash at some time, but who knows
where that went.
I have no family, no friends and I do not know anyone in my
neighbourhood, even though I recognize the voices and steps of some of
the people who come by on a regular basis. Some of them say something
to me when I bark, but it does not sound too friendly.
Sometimes they have a dog with them and I bark even louder, because I
guess it brings out a lot of anger in me. I wish I was that dog.
To be out and sniff where other dogs have tread, to meet people and
dogs and know that I am important enough to be taken on a walk with the
one(s) who live in the house on my property....., that would be my
dream come true.
But all I do is bark when I hear anyone walking by, even if I can't see
them because of the fence, the hedge and another fence.
It's all I live for: to bark, bark, bark. I have nothing else to do, no
one to play with, no one to cuddle with, no one at all.
All my nights are spent outside in a crate and I am so very lonely.
I have never seen the inside of that big house that's on the property,
but I fantasize that it may be warm there and cosy, when I notice that
the lights are on inside and maybe there's a soft floor and some music
playing and someone who touches me and talks to me...
Well, who would want to talk to me? I'm not exactly socialized.
I was never trained to be house-broken, I was never shown affection, so
I don't know how to show it either and in order to find my purpose in
life, I decided I would try and protect the house and whoever lives in
it. Whatever his name is, the person in that house..., he does not
acknowledge that I try to serve a purpose.
I may be 4 or 6 or 9 years old, but I hope life will not go on forever
as I'm cold and bored and so sad that my life had to turn out like
this.
When the cold weather starts I bark more because I get freaked out with
the house all dark and it seems the lights will never get on so that at
least I know that someone in the house is alive and well. So I bark out
of sheer frustration and loneliness.

I am not just one dog, I am many dogs. I'm a shepherd, a Golden
Retriever, a Husky, a Lab, a Rottweiler, a pit bull and a mutt and I
live in your neighbourhood, as close as the adjoining yard at the back
of your property. I peek through the fence sometimes to see how other
dogs live, with families and children, other dogs and cats and toys and
visitors.
I live in the yard right next to yours and sometimes you throw me a
treat because you hear me howling, barking and just crying because I
can't help myself.
It has happened occasionally that someone in my neighbourhood felt
sorry for me and phoned the SPCA to report me as being this lonely dog
who really has no life at all, but some SPCA officer comes and sees
that I have a foodbowl and a waterbowl and they leave me in a heap of
shattered hopes.

It will be that time of year soon when I know that strings of lights
are going to be put on the houses around me. It brings a little more
light into the neighbourhood and I sometimes can hear those friendly
sounds inside the neighbours' houses and they're happy sounds.
And I sit in my crate or my doghouse and wish that just for once I
could take a look inside and feel what it would be like to be loved and
cared for as a member of a family.

I'll be gone before too long, but if you read this and recognize me,
oh, please, would you try and understand my plight and just give me one
night when all those little lights come on, to be with you and show
me that affection I know is given out to so many of my fellow canines?

I am,
your lonely backyard dog,
no name, no address