Dumped behind a coffee shop,
A tiny pup barely two months old.
Was my mother’s master kind
To abandon me where there might be food
So I wouldn’t die?
All because I was the runt of the litter,
a mongrel and born a bitch.
Afraid, lonely, at a loss
when I still wanted to suckle on my mother’s teats.
I was kicked and shooed away.
I was caressed by a little boy
A girl gave me a piece of chicken.
Coffee shop helpers feed me scraps from the table.
The little kindness makes me sad.
For no one loves me enough to give me a home.
How I longed to belong to a mother, a father, a child, a master!
Someone to call my own, some place to call home.
I could be a man’s best friend.
I have died a thousand deaths since.
My tears had long dried up.
Hardly a teen, I was banged up and had my first brood of litter.
What chance does a girl has on the streets
against these gangs of dogs on the prowl.
Dogs, we are really dogs!
I have had so many broods of litter that I’ve lost count
and no pups by my side to show.
Don’t ask me where my children are.
Humans came and took them.
I pray they have better lives.
Call me a stray mongrel, free roaming dog or whatever.
Names don’t matter. Love does.
Would someone take a look at me now and still love me,
Old with half my fur gone, bad skin and smell?
Humans say they are kind to free roaming dogs.
Kind enough to take me in?
Word on the street is that men in uniform are coming with guns
Guns to put the unwanted ones to sleep.
Why after I have suffered for so long?
Is it fear?
I can smell the fear and see the shunning.
Rabies makes dogs go crazy
But fear makes people do crazy things.
Whose fault is it anyway?Dogs?
I don’t think a rabid dog would just cross the border by itself.
No dog is stupid to go get itself a deadly disease.
Yes, dogs die from rabies too!
So now I wait.
For the men in uniform or God
I’ve heard that all dogs go to heaven.
Heaven should be better than here.