Dog Saved by Working Together

A few weeks ago, I saw something amazing. At least to me. I have my times, Lord knows I do when I don't believe in the goodness of people. When I see them look the other way when others need help, when they push and shove their way at after Christmas sales, when they drop off their pet at the humane society because "it" doesn't fit in with their lifestyle anymore, when I see a mother smoking while she is pregnant, when I see in the paper a drunk driver lives while killing a family - I know I am not without my own faults or issues but it makes me wonder where we're all headed.

I was driving down a busy street to a grocery store and suddenly, a small dog (perhaps a puppy) was walking on the side of the street. He was sure to be hit by a car, no question it would happen. He was about ten pounds. I said, "Great, here is another dog I need to save." (After saving countless cats and not knowing where to find homes for them and about five dogs including a flea-bitten belly bloated chihuahua in Aruba who just wandered from a cactus forest when we stopped the car, I have seen it all. A cat with a tail chopped off, another with half an ear torn from a cat fight - they flock to me like they know where I am. Or maybe, nobody else notices them when they walk by?) Anyway, I knew I was going to have to stop and the reason why I was frustrated, I didn't know what I was going to do with him.  And then it happened! Like God opening the sky and sunshine coming down, SOMEONE ELSE STOPPED!

The person in the car ahead of me pulled off to a side road, got out of their car and tried to get the dog. The dog ran across the road, all four lanes were stopping.  Then one car which was turning stopped right in the middle of the road, got out of his car and crawled underneath another car which stopped. The dog was hiding underneath the wheels of the car. I thought I heard angels singing. People were working together to save one dog who wouldn't have made it otherwise. I was so proud. I don't know if it restored my faith in humanity but it showed me people have the power to make a difference and when they all come together to work for the common good, in some kind of special moment to save something many might find insignificant, it's almost like God is there with them, proud in this one act of humanity which shows we were worth it.

Down in the Dungeons

Note: This was a story I started when I was still working as a social worker and did evaluations in peoples' homes and the hospital.

Today, I had to go to the hospital to do evaluations on patients. I go there maybe two times a year since I do evaluations out in the community, not at the hospital.

I had never gone to the hospital alone. And I go maybe once a year when they need help. And there I went by myself; lost, lonely and confused you might say wandering around in a hospital basement through winding curves and passageways looking for a 5 by 5 foot office room which was supposedly next to the basement morgue.

When I first arrived at the hospital I asked the receptionist how to get to the office.

She gave me a strange look and said, "Oh boy, follow this hallway all around, go down to the basement and it's a quarter mile."

"A quarter mile!" I said. "In a basement!"

I knew for sure I would end up lost, in a hospital basement no less, and in a hospital basement with a morgue. And with a quarter mile to roam about, I could be lost for days.

I walked past ceilings with metal tubing, walls covered in tarp obviously being built or fixed, I even passed the morgue. And instead of remembering all of the Stephen King movies I shouldn't have watched when I passed by with the ghosts, zombies and the like; I thought about the people who were lying inside who had passed away, and even though I knew they weren't spiritually still there, I felt an overwhelming loneliness for them as I walked by.

(And that's where the story ended.)