Strays.
January 31st, 2005 | by john |I was driving home from work and saw a stray dog running around the sidewalk on Marrietta Street. The dog wasn’t just walking and wasn’t just running but it was still moving rather quickly. And no, this wasn’t a little dog you see and say “Awwwwwww” for… this dog was large; probably about 2.5 feet long and maybe 2 feet tall. I just wanted to stop the car, see if the dog was okay, and see if he followed me afterward – which is a sign that he wants something like food or even just care.
I have a thing about stray domestic animals – especially dogs. Whenever I see a stray dog, it’s stuck in my mind for a long time. Right now, I’m typing this up to just get it out because I’ve been worrying about that dog I saw earlier tonight. I wonder where that dog was during the ice storm saturday morning 
Another thing: whenever I hear/read about animals being abused or neglected, I wince and get angry. It’s like the one thing that really effects my emotions without having to be directly related with me at all. A week ago, I saw this news story about this old women driving from one state to another with like 90 cats in the back of her van starving to death or already unconcious. WTF is wrong with people in this world!
And another thing: I was at Gwinnett Place Mall the other day and there was a Pet shop there and they had plastic cages stacked on top of each other in three rows and there were puppies and kittens inside. This one puppy in one of the cages was playing by himself… I think he was chasing his own tail – but imagine being stuck in a small plastic cage and all you get is a water bottle and food that taste like cardboard boxes (yes, I’ve tasted dry dog food before). It’s not like that’s their day job… to sit around in a cage to just wait. They don’t go home with anyone at the end of the day unless they are ‘bought’. Most of them just sit in the same spot and spend every single day there; an endless loop. Is it just me that think this is a sad process?
Anyway, now everyone knows my soft spot.
Excuse me if the above is incoherent… just wrote what came to my mind after being awake for about 20 hours.
