Dog Friend

I keep letting more time go between writing and posting here. It's odd, and once again, sad. When Oz was alive, there would have been, could have been updates several times a day, because we were always doing things. Now, time drifts.

In any case, in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, there was a character who was named "Elf-friend" (or elf friend). The tag came from special service to the elves, and from being friend beyond his race's norm.

Given how many people serve dogs so well, I'm hardly a standout, but I do sometimes feel like a dog friend—like there's some special tag on me, since Oz. When I was in Seattle on Saturday, no strange people (except wait staff) came up to me…but one strange dog did. The same was true in downtown Bellingham.

I'm also moving more towards being engaged in other ways with dogs. I called the humane society about volunteering, looking specifically to walk and socialize dogs. Last night, after a bit of more planned TV, Kathy found a program more or less by accident about the humane society of Houston rescuing animals after a hurricane. A few years ago, I would never have watched something like this. Last night, I still could have passed on it—but once it was on, I found myself deeply moved by the plight of the animals, and by the people who were lining up to help them.
As one example: foster homes were needed for 600 animals for 10 days, so their owners had time to find them all. There were lines of people, ready to take in strange animals for so long/brief a time, after a few moments of meeting!

On the flip side, some people had abandoned their animals, even though the city had provided free crates for transportation. They left tiny dogs in closed buildings and bolted the city. My vision blurred with anger hearing this. Jesus!