I questioned whether or not I should share this story due the disturbing nature, but decided that I should, as these moments are too rare to be a part of and learn from in such a dramatic way.
I have only shared this story with my husband because I am not sure if I could control myself if I received a sarcastic or insensitive response from others. I look at animals as beautiful sentient beings, and teachers that we share this earth with, and that we should have a respect for and never treat as possessions or objects...
Having said that, and I apologize in advance for this lengthy post, but I really must paint the picture.
I work in Dallas and I live 50 miles away in the country. Imagine Friday afternoon rush hour traffic I was traveling on the 2nd of 3 freeways I must travel to get home, it can be rage inducing and mind numbing, until I get closer to home when I can exhale.
I notice something small black and moving on the shoulder, it is not registering, this is a busy freeway next to down town. I see a woman pull over to the half shoulder and get out running after, oh it’s a dog. Oh no! She is running, he is running faster, she is frantic… I pull ahead and try to keep him from leaving the shoulder, he bolts, and I am honking flashers on, and stopping, to alert the other vehicles hopefully that they should slow down or stop. People see what is happening, everyone slows dramatically or comes to a halt, the dog a midsized panic stricken black Lab is darting back and forth across 4 lanes of traffic. We have created a wall basically people are getting out of their cars calling to the dog, enough people, so I drive up further ahead and pull over, I am waiting ahead calling to the dog, now there is an ambulance driver running behind the dog, the dog panics and bolts again, for the elevated entrance ramp of an even busier freeway.
The ambulance driver passenger gets in the driver seat and takes off for the ramp, a van already on the ramp, straddles his van sideways as the dog is running his direction, the ambulance get up to the ramp and does the same. I pull onto the ramp and stop with flashers on. The dog is now cornered, the van driver, and the ambulance driver calmly approach the dog, and then…The dog cornered leaps over the edge of the (2) story elevated entrance ramp. The men’s faces turned white they were devastated.
They looked over the edge as if they were trying to see where he went. I did not look; I choose to think that the sturdy, adrenaline fueled dog, landed on a small patch of grass instead of the asphalt and survived. I was shaking...
Normally a situation like this would have had me in sobs, with heart breaking…a lost night of sleep thinking about it…etc….but instead I noticed that even when I was in the midst of it, that this was special, all of these dozens of people stopped on the freeway, out of their cars, hands on heads, hands on hearts, hands in the air from sadness and frustration at their inability to capture this innocent, fear stricken dog….. My heart was so full of the humanity of that, the looks we exchanged, it was as if our desire and action were enough, we shared that connection of humanity. All of those people that day had to be touched by that experience, by stepping out of their personal moments of being on their cell phone, frustration, thinking about mundane task, to all of the sudden experiencing something unexpected and meaningful.
The black dog showed me that day, and hopefully others that people do still care, that people still have a basic instinct of humanity, and that it is strong. May we all serve our purpose and have as much of an impact as Black Dog did that day…..
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