How Much is the Puppy in the Window

Your kids tug at your sleeve and beg you ‘please, please’.  You take me home and give me my own bed to sleep in oh boy!  We play chase around the house and a game of fetch out in the front yard.  You pet me and rub my belly and tell me how much you love me.

As the days go by the games grow shorter that we play, you tell me you are tired and ‘won’t I just go away!’  The kids no longer like to take me on walks, it is now a chore and instead of fun like I used to be I am now quite a bore.

I had an accident in my cage today because I was left in there for hours, I got yelled at and punished instead of you being happy to see me after being gone so long.  You put me outside in the cold wet rain and leave me there as you sit in front of that TV playing your video games.

I whimper and whine as that is the only noise that I know, I may bark at my shadow but that angers you so.  I am growing bigger now and need more exercise, you get mad when I run in the house and jump on the furniture and play inside.  You sit around and play all day why cannot I?  You get mad when I beg at the table where you used to feed me your scraps.  It was okay when I was a puppy but now I am too big for your lap.

You take the kids to school as you do every day, this time I get to go along for the ride and you tell me it will all be okay.  I get excited, piddle a little on the floor, run to the car beating you all out the door.  We drop the kids off at the school to study and play. I know I will get to see them again at the end of the day.

We drive a different route than the way we usually go, I stick my head out the window to smell the new scents in the air.  You talk to me and tell me that I have been bad and you just cannot do this anymore.  I look at you with my deep brown eyes intently trying to understand what you are saying and why I am smelling fear and anger along on this ride.

You pull to the side of the road, somewhere unfamiliar and overgrown, you open my door and  thinking I get to play.  I jump out with anticipation and run off a few feet to mark my spot and let all others know what I am about.  I turn around when I hear the door slam, just in time to have dirt spun into my face as you drive off into the daylight leaving me behind.

What happened, I don’t understand I thought this was play time and yet you left me abandoned.  I thought to myself ‘surely he will come right back.’  Hours go by and I finally accept that I am alone and you are not going to be bringing me back home.  My instincts take over and I start to wander this new place, inspecting it for some food and maybe a safe place to sleep.

Lonely and hungry I keep searching around, sticking my nose into garbage just to find some scraps to eat.  I can feel my skin growing tighter as my ribs begin to dig into my sides.  It has been days since I have eaten a good meal or been inside our home, do you miss me at all as I wither away just skin and bones.

The cars pass me by splashing me with the mud and grime  of their tires as if I was not there.  I even smelled you one day as you drove right by me and never stopped or cared.  What did I do to be left out here to fend for myself?  Am I not the same puppy that you saw in the window that you bought to silence your kids pleas?

Now I am out here in the cold world alone protecting  myself, I have been in and out of the shelters here as I am considered a ‘bully breed’ and not usually wanted for long.  I am not a fighter and have escaped many times from being used as bait only to be back out on the streets where you left me that day.

My body is scarred and broken from living on these hard streets.  I have had litters of puppies for others so that they can get paid.  All you had to do back then when you had me was have me spayed.  Instead I am out here in the cold, continuing the cycle that you began when I was sold.

This story is all too true and happens every day, in every town and city around the world there are dogs that are bought from puppy mill pet stores and end up out on the streets to fend for themselves.  There are organizations set up in your town to help these homeless animals find new homes where they are loved and cared for.

Whether it is your local rescue group, humane society or animal shelter, the only way to stop the problem is to get involved.  Be the voice of those that have none, rather than supporting puppy mills, save a dog from a kill shelter instead.  And as the famous Bob Barker used to say ‘Help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered.’