Member-only story
My Dog Lost a Leg. I Found So Much More
In her dreams, she has four legs. I wish I could see them.
Has your heart ever broken upon meeting someone for the first time?
Your eyes connect, your heart swells, and then a crack. You notice something not immediately apparent. A disfigurement. A medical diagnosis apparent without ever reading a chart. It takes you by surprise. Your eyes reconnect. Another crack. They look at you with love, but you have to turn away. You don’t want them to see their suffering within your eyes. You don’t want them to see you as your heart crumbles.
Unsurprisingly, some of the greatest heartaches I’ve experienced as a human have come at the paws of a dog. Wandering row after row of the overcrowded Tucson Humane Society, my chest was predisposed to ache for the surrendered animals. Nearly every one of the almost two hundred kennels was double-booked. I’d never seen such a crowded animal shelter. The volunteer from San Francisco scratched his neck as he agreed with me.
“Perhaps we make it too easy,” he said, in reference to the drive-through animal surrender window. “Though it’s better than the alternative.”
An alternative to pets being discarded in the middle of the desert.
