Under heavy
dark cedar boughs at the bottom of a cold backyard, a chained
dog spent her life. The trees were her shelter, a hole in the
dirt her bed. Sometimes she was given water, but mostly she
drank muddy rainwater. Sometimes she was given food, but often
she starved. Sometimes children came out to play in the yard;
she would watch them and wag her tail, but they had been told to
stay away from her and so they never even looked at her.
She was
reported to an SPCA many times, but her tether was long enough;
she had food, water, and some shelter; and so her life went on,
unchanging, day after day, year after year.
Until a band
of rescue angels came for her; a band of socially-responsible
people; the breed of people who
won't look away from the vacant
eyes that have stopped expecting a kind look. A band of people
who believe with St Augustine (354 - 430) that "Right
is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if
everyone is doing it", and with Martin Luther King (1929 - 1968)
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail” 1963, that "One has a moral
responsibility to disobey unjust laws."
The band of
rescue angels came for Ellie one night. They guided her the way
to freedom and happiness with the light of their love for her.
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