This dog has been beaten every single day, for as long as he can remember. This dog has lived his entire life in a state of sheer terror… never knowing when the next blow would come. Never knowing what he would do to trigger the next beating…
This dog watched… as his family packed up all of their belongings, and moved away… without him. This dog waited… for weeks on a chain… for them to return for him. They would never return for him. This dog waited… with hopes, dreams, and love… he waited…
This dog ends up at the pound… where he is immediately placed on death row. He is again restricted from running and playing, this time by a cage. He is again terrified for his life… as he should be… he doesn’t have much time…
This dog waits, as day after day, no one stops at his cage. He sees the children run for the cages with the cute little puppies, and then watches the pups leave with their new families. He sees a family pass him by, to visit the dog in the next cage over. At first, he thinks they are stopping for him, and he goes to greet them, tail wagging. As they play with the neighboring dog, he sits… watching… waiting… longing for his turn. And then, he watches, as the other dog joyfully prances past him, on her way to a new home.
For days, this boy gets up to greet every family that comes past his cage. He waits eagerly by the gate for his turn to show that he’s special. And no one ever stops for him…
Eventually, he stops getting up.
Day after day, this dog waits. He sees the others, one-by-one, heading out the door… but it’s never his turn. He watches each person pass him by, but he doesn’t understand… He doesn’t know that his emaciated frame makes others look away. He doesn’t know that his eyes don’t shine due to the years of torture. He doesn’t know that his coat is dull from improper care, or that he smells because he’s never had a bath.
He doesn’t know that he is of a breed that doesn’t stand a chance. And of a color that is all too common. He just knows that he wants to go home, and he is beginning to understand that it will never happen for him. And so… he waits… with shattered hopes, dreams, and love… he waits… to die.
On the day his time runs out, I arrive for him. As I approach his cage, he doesn’t even lift his head. What’s the use? No one is here for me. No one wants me. Why doesn’t anyone want me? When I stop at his kennel, he barely looks up at me. He is certain that I couldn’t be there for him. No one has ever been there for him.
I look into his cage. I see a dog, and my heart breaks into a million tiny pieces that fall at my feet as teardrops. I see a soul so wounded, so broken, that he has given up all hope.
On this day, I am there for no other reason than to save his life. I know that I am there to take him, but he doesn’t know that. He waits for me to keep walking on to the next dog, but I’m not going anywhere without him.
I open the gate, and say, “Come on, buddy. Let’s go home.” He has no idea what this means. He is unsure, afraid, and heartbroken. For days, he has waited for someone to come for him, and no one ever did. Now, he is waiting to die… he assumes that’s why I’m here.
So, I bend down. I gently touch his head. And I say, “It’s your turn, buddy. Let’s break outta this joint.” As I loop the leash around his head, his tail slowly begins to wag. He follows me, timidly, with uncertainty of where I will lead him…
On death row, you walk one way to die, and the other way to live. He and I, headed down the path of the living.
And I watched the smile spread across his face, as we stepped out into the sunlight…
This dog… was my Rudy. The dog who would eventually steal my heart more than any other pup I have ever known. This dog, was the most special boy that ever lived. And he was sitting on death row, waiting to die.
Until that day, Rudy had only known abuse and heartbreak. From that moment on, he never knew pain again. Rudy’s time with me was so full of happiness, that he never stopped smiling. Every day, he thanked me, with a love so powerful, it will stay with me forever.
On July 8, 2010, Rudy died of a sudden, unexpected heart attack. It was the worst day of my life. But on that day, I stood over Rudy’s lifeless body, and I didn’t see a dog. I saw my son. I saw my child, my heart, my life. I saw a once-forgotten soul, who will be remembered forever. I saw the reason for everything I am, and everything I do. I saw a boy who didn’t die in the pound, but rather lived in my heart.
And so, on every trip to the pound, I look for him. Another Rudy, is waiting to die. Another broken spirit has given up. Another lost soul will become yet another statistic. Unless… we save them.
