Friday, December 31, 2004

It's heartening to know that good things still happen.

My godbrother Jason found an old retriever on monday - in all likelihoods abandoned by the people it loved. He brought it home...and it really is adorable. You know how old dogs are like. Friendly, manja...really sweet. He called him Buddy.

Yesterday at about 6.30pm, Buddy ran away. My mum said maybe it's still looking for it's owner. But it was raining heavily, and nobody wanted to just let it go. We were out at the time, but when we got back from dinner, we spent close to an hour scouting the streets looking for an old, probably wet and bedraggled retriever, hoping that maybe somebody had taken him in.

When we finally gave up and drove home, everybody was pretty down. As my dad pulled the car into the lot, my mum suddenly goes: "There's Buddy!" And there he was, walking along the path in the park opposite our house. Jase had brought him over on the 26th, and maybe he had smelled his way back. We jumped out of the car, and Buddy came straight over. He just loves people, i think he would have come to anybody at that point. I hope his owners cry themselves to sleep every night out of guilt. Dad coaxes him into the house, and we tell Jase we found his dog.

I don't think I'll ever understand why people abandon their pets. Can you imagine walking from house to house, approaching car after car, hoping (and without doubt, because I don't think dogs are capable of doubt) that somewhere, somehow, the people who left you behind are coming to take you home? Buddy comes into a house, and goes right through it, hoping that somehow, he's come home. But he hasn't, and no matter how much we love and pamper him, he will never truly be home. Because he still believes his owners will come for him. And that they're looking for him the way he's looking for them. Don't ever abandon your pet.