A gentle evening in the park

Hello Everyone,

I wrote this email a little while ago. Figured I would publish it now. And a warning, it's sad.

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The other evening, I was walking Arthur around the park near my place. I have been going there most evenings as it's within walking distance and my car was still in the shop. Arthur will occasionally play with the other dogs, but mostly trots along with me and sniffs about. There is usually a group of people gathered near the centre, chatting, while their dogs run around.

The last few times, I was worried that Arthur wasn't playing with other dogs because I kept to the path around the outside and he didn't want to be too far from me when it's just the two of us. So I had taken to walking through the grass, still generally not interacting with people, but close enough for Arthur to play with other dogs.

On this evening, I walked past the group in one direction and took little notice. They were chatting as normal, but as I walked past the second time, I slowly noticed they weren't chatting as normal any more. My focus had been on Arthur and encouraging him to play with a high energy doodle that had been bounding about. It's an odd thing to realize that the situation around you has changed, but you took awhile to notice it.

The group was in a tight circle, still talking, but now looking at each other and at the ground. A couple were crouched. One the ground lay one of the dogs, a brown Doberman, that a minute before I had seen running around with the doodle. He was not moving.

As I focused, I caught snippets of conversation. From these I gathered that the dog had collapsed and the group was trying to figure out what to do. Call 911? Call a vet? My first instinct was not to get involved. There was already about 8 people there, I'm not sure what I could add and I didn't want to get in the way. Then I thought that maybe they don't know where there's an emergency vet (I have some experience with those), but I noticed that a guy was on the phone with one already. It was only after someone else mentioned it that I remembered there is a regular vet just down the street.

The man hung up the phone and picked up the dog. It hung limp in his arms. He hurried across the grass with the woman who had been crouching. Arthur and I left as well. Didn't seem right to stay. From across the street I could see them in the vet clinic, the technician there doing vigorous chest compressions.

I don't know what happened to that dog. Didn't seem right to stay and gawk. But seeing his limp, lifeless body being carried away left a strong impression on my mind. He'd been full of energy a moment before, and now his people were left helpless to save him. Ours is a precarious existence.

Hug your loved ones.

wes

#Dogs