Fall 2009. My sister and I are driving to Oakwood hospital to see my grandpa Calvin. We took Ford road all the way down instead of taking my usual freeway route. When we were getting onto Southfield freeway from Ford road I saw a dog laying down on the hill. I assumed it was dead but watched it just incase b/c I wanted to make sure God had taken care of it incase he meant for me to take care of it. It was moving. Actually, the beautiful chocolate lab was chewing on what looked to be a dead squirrel (I know, gross. It could have been a toy, but I thought it was a squirrel). I freaked out and made Kristen turn around. We got out of the car and walked up the hill to see if I had been mistaken. The dog saw me and I stopped walking. Her tail wagged as she stood up and began to walk towards us. Kristen was in the car before me, I wanted to come in contact with her so that I could possibly get her in the car, but then we were in my sister's brand new ford fusion and hershey, as another woman came to call her, was pretty scruffed up and dirty for her journey to this lonely place in the world. I was standing right outside the car, not sure if I was going to put her in the back seat or what and hershey was right out of my reach when big sister stepped up and became the negative nancy every animal lover needs to keep them safe. She coaxed me back to into the car, alone, by saying things like "you could get fleas and bring them back to lady bug" and "Stephanie Joyce, you're being dumb, we'll call the authorities and they'll do this, it's their job! You don't know what your doing." So in the car we both sat frantically calling police stations, human societies, friends who knew the area, our parents, ect. All to no avail.
6 hours pass as we sat there watching the dog sit on the grass and stare at us calling people who were supposed to be able to help us only to be redirected and turned down. Our last call to our father worked. He answered and told us about one of the ladies at his office who rescues on the side. He gave us her contact info and we called her and explained to situation. She came up there as soon as she could and met us. The boys she was with scared hershey, and she ran away from us, far into the woods. So we all had no choice but the leave her with some food by a tree where her water bowl was left when her owner dropped her off in the God forsaken parking lot. That was my introduction to hershey.
The next day, and many days after that, I would go to that place and wait. Just sit in my car and look for her. She was back the next day and I tried again to get close to her. I never got as close as I did that first day. I carried around towels, dog treats, bones, food, a long leash, and water bottles incase I was able to get close to her again, but I wasn't. I left her food everyday I could, but there was no saying she was the one eating it. There are coyotes and deer in dearborn that were more likely to have stolen the food I left out for poor hershey. I missed classes, got a flat tire, and sat for hours on end in the freezing cold rain feet away from hershey, just so she wouldn't feel alone. I did everything I could, met with officers, talked with the nicest animal control lady who set up traps to catch her, and put the contact of the closest humane society that we would take her to as soon as we caught her. But we never caught her. The male animal control officer would see her one day and chase her down like an idiot. She was way faster than any two legged human being and probably most four legged beings as well. Either way, he would chase her thinking he could catch her and she would disappear for days.
Once I watched in horror as she crossed the ramp to southfield freeway to take shelter under a pine tree in the stretch of land between the ramp and southfield. I went over there with her, I drove and parked on the side of the ramp with my emergency lights on. I sat under a tree three tree away from hershey on a towel, leash and treats in hand. I sat there watching her watch me and she did eventually get up and walk towards me, but she stopped at the tree closest to mine and laid down with a grunt. The trust she had initially, if any, was gone because of all the people I had chasing her down. about an hour later and I had to go home to my dog. It hurt to leave her there and I often cried on the way home because I knew that if she didn't trust me I would never be able to help her and no one else gave a damn about her.
Eventually she disappeared for good by the henry ford campus. The nights were getting colder and it rained often. Three weeks later I saw hershey on the side of southfield freeway dead on my way to class. God had taken care of her b/c the humans she was left on Earth to trust were scum. She would have been an awesome dog for someone out there. Some dogs are mean and ill tempered, but I spent countless hours with hershey and I saw how kind she was.
Before class that day I went on the human society's website and I signed up to volunteer. The soonest date for training was jan 16th so I took it. I've been waiting for tomorrow to come since then and I have opened my eyes to animal cruelty around me. I never used to scan the sides of roads and freeways for dogs, dead or alive, until I met hershey. Now I do and I have seen a bull dog decapitated, cats hit by cars (this might not be a case of strays or dropped animals, but simply loose cats), and dogs that were at the mercy of people driving cars who don't give a damn about saving a life. I have also seen bloody piles of feather, which I can only assume to be birds that have been hit, along with the occasional squirrel. In a different, more environmentally friendly country (whose name has slipped my mind), freeways and streets are built and then never moved and the speed limit is never changed once set. They have not built a new road since the 1950 or something like that. This gives the wild life around a chance to familiarize themselves to the traffic in the areas around where they live and they supposedly have less road kill and accidents. I'm not sure if this is true, I read it somewhere, but it's an idea. I mean, why is it ok to take an animal life with a car? It's the same as using a gun, but if you shot a dog in the city, you would be in trouble. Run them over with your car and you're good to go! Police are never involved in road kill accidents although you'd think if you hit a dog you would pull over, see if it's ok, call the police or animal control and try and make the situation right. People don't. People just don't care and that's what I can't stand. In the words of Dr. Susess's Horton the Elephant, a life is a life, no matter how small. That's why every time I see a bundle of bloody feathers or a cat on the side of the road, I pray. b/c someone in this word needs to care about the lives that our desensitized community have taken.
Well, my goal of procrastinating finishing pre-calc was achieved! I could blog about this for hours and will probably return to the topic again. As for tomorrow, I can't wait to start doing something I have a real passion for. I mean, I like dogs more than kids sometimes (I know! :X) so if my preschool job brings me such joy, imagine how satisfied I'll be with this position. Someone asked me what the source of my happiness was. I jokingly said lady, but I realize that that answer isn't far from the truth. Animals bring me joy in the same manner children bring me joy. Only animals can't say they hate you when they get upset and they can't stab you in the back, nor do I think they want to. Animals just want to have fun and so they find joy in everything they do if left to their own resources. When a dog has been mistreated, it's a whole other blog lol, I'll cover that one another day when I don't have pre-calc staring me down.
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