A Dog’s Life

Cataracts cloud my eyes and scars cover my body. My joints hurt and I move slowly now. The years have stripped me of both youth and energy. As I lie here on the couch, I realize my life is now in the rearview mirror.  I’m old now and have gone by many names.  But wisdom has permeated my soul.

My dad was a traveler who I never knew.  My mother, bless her soul, was a small terrier mix.  From her, I got my white coat and my incredible will to live. I was born on a farm in a box under a trailer on a very cold Christmas night.  Mother cradled us gently as the stars burned brightly in the inky black sky.  It was one of the few peaceful times I would know.

Soon after we were born, a human put us in a box threw us in the back of a truck.  I don’t remember much from that day, but I know we were dropped off far from the trailer.  I recall fleeting images of the rusty red truck and my mother barking wildly as it rode away. She then did something totally unexpected: She leapt from the truck to be with us.

My mother was amazing like that.  She chose us over the humans who betrayed her litter.

She pulled us out of the box and drug into the nearby woods.  After that, my childhood was a blur of trashcans and handouts.  When I was one, mom was hit by a car and left to die in the middle of the highway.  The world lost a loving soul when she passed.  As we walked away, my brother, sister and I were left to fend for ourselves in a very cruel world.

If you will excuse me, I need to pause for a moment.

One morning, the three of us were approached by a human with a noose on a pole. My brother couldn’t escape the noose and was drug off to a truck. My sister and I watched as it drove off.  We never saw our brother again — I hope he is in a better place.   My sister and I soon separated after that day. I haven’t seen her again either.  I pray she found peace as well. She was a kind soul like our mother.

The following fall, a farmer trapped me in a cage near his hen house. I had developed a keen taste for eggs and for some reason, he wasn’t willing to share them with me.  He was a big burly man with a prominent scar across his right cheek.  He claimed that man was on the top of the pecking order and used Genesis as an excuse to beat me often and horribly. I was kept chained out in the backyard and subjected to the horrible storms of spring.  One night, a horrible thunderstorm rocked the farm. Lightning lit the land like a strobe light.  A loud noise, almost like a pulsing jet engine came out of the darkness.  The monster raked across the farm — The farmer’s house disappeared in a cloud of shrapnel. When morning came, the landscape was littered with dead horses, cows, chickens and two humans.

I guess karma caught up with the farmer’s meanness.

I knew I had to leave to survive. So I pulled on the chain to pull the stake out of the moist soil.  I put that farm behind me as I drug the chain down the road behind me. One afternoon, I was poking through a bag of trash when I heard a loud explosion.  Pain seared through my body as bird shot tore into my side and left leg.  The chain jingled as I ran as fast I could from the second explosion.  I curled up in a dark hole, licking the blood from my matted white fur. Pain choked me and as I faded, I saw my mother’s beautiful face. I felt a peace like I’ve never felt before.

I awoke as the human lifted me up.  He was gray-headed and wrinkled, but  had a warm kindness to his face. I was afraid, but too weak to run. I just whimpered as he carefully laid me on the towel in the cab of his truck and whispered to me that I would be OK.  I think he was an angel, although he really didn’t look like my mother.  I faded again and was blanketed in velvety blackness.

My eyes opened to see steel bars. I can’t really describe the smell — it seemed like disinfectant and bleach.  There were other animals in cages: A tabby cat. A three-legged terrier who said his name was “Lucky.”  There was a one-eyed German Shepard named Hans.  I looked at my battered body and saw I was bandaged.  The man who had saved me walked through the room and peered down into my cage.

“Hello my little friend, you’ve had quite an exciting adventure.”

I initially cowered in the back of the cage, but the soothing sound of his voice comforted me. Maybe this human was different. Maybe I wasn’t about to get savagely beaten. I walked to the bars and licked his outstretched hand.  Salt. So this is what an angel tasted like.

I gathered strength and learned to walk again. Hans told me we were in what was called a “veterinarian clinic,” but I just knew it was different than any other place I had been before.  The food was good and the care was loving.  I felt a warmth that I had only felt from my mother.  Maybe there were good humans out there — yet, I still had my doubts.

And then I met her.

She was blonde, about six years old and full of joy. She bounded into the office and yelled, “GRANDPA.” The gray-headed man stopped and picked up the little girl.  He called her Anna Grace as she swung her around.  The world seemed brighter with her in the room.

“Here’s the one I was telling you about, Anna Grace.”

I wagged my tail as she came up to me.  She dropped to her knees and jumped up on her.

“I’ll call him “Snowball!”

As her mother and father put me into their car, I allowed that sink to in. My name is now Snowball.

I’m old now. I think of all the hardships in my life. I also think of my beloved mother. In my heart, I feel her’s beating. I know someday I’ll see her and my siblings again.  I’m scarred by man’s cruelty and yet have survived because of his kindness.  But right now, I’m going to doze in Anna Grace’s lap.

I’m a dog. And I’ve led an amazing life.