A bag of puppies

27 January 2013

Matt found a bag of puppies.
They were so young their eyes were not open yet.
He heard their whimpers while he walked by, lifted the rock and untied the knots to reveal them. The morning after they were nestled in rags, all 5 puppies fitting snug inside a small box. My presence awoke them as I sat with them, noticing their unique colors, their paws the size of pennies, their skin pink and pure. They pushed themselves around to get comfortable, to get oriented, to find the milk, but alas none of their siblings were lactating.

“It happens every minute all over the world my friend” my brother tried to console me.

So what do we do? “Feed them goats milk and find a momma dog they can attach to” says my brother in America. Well in Ethiopia, most of the female dogs are killed so they don’t produce and create such situations. We have plenty of goats, but no goat milk is readily available. Even if we fed them, kept them alive, made them strong… is that a good solution?

Frank typed “Human ways to euthanize puppies” into Google search. Is this a superior solution? Are we saving ourselves from the burden of responsibility or are we really just shortening the time of calamity for these babies, letting them go quicker to peace.

Are they better off to grow up into street dogs? To be beaten by people, hit by cars and feel perpetual hunger? To reproduce and make more puppies who will be bagged and taken outside. What is the best answer? What is humane?

In Ethiopia the streets are shared by homeless dogs and people. I can’t lend much sympathy to either of them anymore. I offer “exabier yilisting” (God will provide) though these words are not sincere, and do not heal wounds, give shelter from the sun or offer hope for their children. We have no homes for the homeless, no money for pity, no help for the handicap and no space for sympathy.

For their sake, I’m glad the puppies were blind and unable to see all the shame in this world.