Speaking Up

I haven't posted in a while since I've been so depressed with my job lately. Today, however, something happened that I think was definitely worth writing about. I hope that whoever reads this will remember my post in the event that they consider looking the other way.

There I was, end of the day, like always, changing out meters. I only had about 8 houses on this street and was on my 7th when the dog next door came to challenge my intrusion into his neighbor's yard. The dog was some kind of Dalmatian mix, hardly anything worth causing concern under normal circumstances, but I did see something that caused me great concern...

What the hell...?

Taking a closer look at the dog, I noticed it had a wound on the top of its head. The canine moved closer, barking at me, tucking its tail between its legs, shaking slightly. It was at this point that I noticed how still I was, trying to diagnose the severity of its open wound. My eyes moved to its right shoulder where I noticed another, bigger open wound. The fur was a dark purple from the blood that had drenched it and dried up under the Florida sun. My stomach began to churn at the sight of this beaten dog. I stood up from where I had been crouching to get a better look and the dog reacted to my sudden movement by running away from the fence and suddenly charging back towards it. In this turn that the dog executed, I saw its left shoulder, with an open wound that extended down towards its rib cage, even more bloody and gruesome than the other two wounds. These wounds did not seem to come from bites or from another dog.

Someone beat the shit outta this dog...

His house was next. I moved up to the door and knocked. Expecting a burly old man with poor manners, I was somewhat surprised when a young black woman with a soft voice answered the door. Taken completely by surprise, I was able to spit out my usual line thanks to the daily rehearsal. Even then, I stumbled over myself a couple of times, not knowing whether I wanted to confront her, play stupid, or punch the bitch in the face and liberate any kind of animal I could find in that house. I decided to stick with the second. My nervousness was obvious and she was reluctant to let me in.

Probably thinks I'm a phony tech.

"I can't open the gate. My father isn't home and he has the key for it."

There's the burly old man with no manners...

"Well," I began, "I really need to get to that meter can."

She thought about it for a second before letting me pass in through the house. She led the two person expedition into the backyard and produced a large, black, plastic baseball bat as we stepped outside.

Fucking bitch I oughtta rip your head off right now...

She kept the dog at bay while threatening it with the bat, but the dog was obviously in a playful mood. His defensive posture had completely evaporated and given way to a puppy's manner. I, acting surprised as if it had been the first time I saw him, asked in the best surprised tone of voice I could muster, "What happened to him!?"

The lady, without looking back, in the most indifferent tone of voice that one could possibly imagine, replied "I dunno"

The period was purposely left out to drive home the fact of how little she cared about this dog's health.

I changed the meter without another word and tried to focus on the job and not the open sores. Upon finishing, I moved my way back through the house and gave a courteous goodbye before noting the address and dashing back to my car. I have never called the police for anything before in my life... until today...

311 non-emergency had two black-and-whites with 3 whites and 1 black, all in blue, on the address inside of ten minutes.

Before I left the area, I got a call back from 311 and they asked me to make contact with officers. I walked right up the address, with all of the self-righteousness of a fuckin' Christian crusader walking up to Jerusalem with sword and shield in hand, and spoke directly to the lead officer and showing my face to the lady so that she would know who had called it in.

The officer began telling me what was happening. Apparently, they didn't really have jurisdiction over this type of case. They were going to call Animal Control and have them come out here and conduct their own investigation. Some time during his explanation, another officer walked up to us.

"What'd she say?" the lead officer asked his counterpart.

"She said it was her father's and that he had been medicating it for a few days now. I think it looks like a fucking corpse... but alive... it's the only alive-corpse I've ever seen in my life."

Cool, he's like one of those movie cops.

At this point I had to move on. The day was over and I had to get back to the warehouse. The police left the scene but not before giving me a card with some information on it in order to follow up on the case.

Believe me, I will be following up on this case...

I sat down in my car and reflected at the lack of meaning, substance, and reward of my day's work. Today, however, I found it by running off the path that I walk everyday. I didn't even have to venture that far off the path! Helping this dog out helped me center my view on the universe again. However, I still won't be giving out money to the hobos on the street corners anytime soon.

Light Side Points Earned!!

I suppose I don't mind if it was in the defense of a helpless dog!