Here I am on a cloudy and chilly day, walking down this narrow street with houses on the left hand side. On the right hand side there is a big open space, more like a field, where some children are playing with a ball. One of them sends the ball into a nearby bush and the young group heads towards it to get the ball back. Getting closer with every step, they notice movement in the bush. What can it be, I wonder?
I stop to watch the children freeze on the spot, as soon as they discovered why the bush was moving. Lifting their heads, they have a worried look on their small faces and I decide to get close. The children have found a puppy. Oh, and what a sad puppy it is!
The cutest little creature but full of ticks and fleas, shivering cold and crying… The sorry state of the puppy is worrying us all, and so the children decide in unison they must help. It’s like they know that since the ball led them to the bush where they found the puppy, they will now have to help however they can and give the puppy a chance. Alone and frail, he otherwise wouldn’t stand any chance.
And so, our puppy gets taken to the vet, he is seen to and gets the best care, the chance of survival he never could have hoped for in that bush. And, as luck would have it, a little while after being found, our puppy, now bigger and so much stronger, finds a home. THE home.
Years go by for him in the home where the puppy became a young dog, then an adult, then a senior, and I always knew, thinking of our puppy, that his luck stroke on that cloudy and chilly day when some children were playing in the field on the side of the narrow street.
Thinking back, I realize once again what a good heart children have and knowing how the world works from the heights of my adult years, how easy it is for that to change. But I also know those children did the best thing for one small creature, finding it the help it needed. Ultimately, it was their hearts which, combined, made it possible for the cold, sad and lonely puppy to live a long and happy life, in the best home possible.
You will say reality is different and too many a times doesn’t work as above. You will say more often than not people don’t have the time to stop and help a puppy. Or if they do, it’s never enough. Or if they do, who can guarantee give the puppy the promise of a good, long and healthy life? You will ask who can say life will be just as good for all the puppies? For all the animals? And you’re right. Nobody can guarantee anything, not for themselves most of the time, let alone for a puppy.
But think for one second. For that one puppy the world could be made a better place, and with the help of children, which is more. Little by little, step by step, the world can be made a better place for all puppies, provided people stop in their tracks to go and see what’s moving in the bush…
Happy New Rescue Year to all!
Hundreds of dogs and cats await their forever humans and their forever homes in the Animal Rescue Cyprus shelter. You can visit the shelter any day of the week between 11am and 3pm or you can check the dedicated Rehoming page at this link: https://www.facebook.com/paphiakosrehoming
For information on international rehoming, please send your inquiry to [email protected]
For the latest happenings in the daily life of Animal Rescue Cyprus please visit https://www.facebook.com/paphiakos
For information call 26946461 and for emergencies 99655581.
