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She put down the 20-lb bag and picked up a 5-lb bag. “It doesn’t seem like much help,” she winced. She almost put it back, then decided. “We’ll take them the small bag, it’s better than nothing.”
The old lady greeted her with a smile. “Thank you and bless you!” she said. “Look how many gifts put together are making a very big gift!” |
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The puppy lay in a dark corner under a wood shack. Sometimes he could smell the tantalizing aroma of food cooking above the cracks in the floor and the tightening in his belly made him whimper. His mother came to him then and regurgitated for him if she could, if she had been lucky and found something dead beside the road. Other times she just licked his face and allowed him to nuzzle at her dry teats until his fierce little teeth drew blood. He was the only one of her puppies still alive.
“The Pet Adoption Fair is asking for puppy chow donations today, let’s pick up a bag when we buy groceries,” the pretty lady said to her husband. Absently he nodded as he sorted through the stack of bills in the mail. “They do good work,” he commented and headed to his desk to begin figuring how to make the money last through the end of the month.
A light flashed through the piers under the shack. Someone was crawling under the house, dragging a net and a catchpole.
The grocery cart was only half full. Property taxes were due this month and the couple were not buying anything not essential. They stopped at the dog food aisle. “Purina Puppy Chow be OK?” he asked. “Sure, that’s a good brand,” she agreed and examined the price tags. She put down the 20-lb bag and picked up a 5-lb bag. “It doesn’t seem like much help,” she winced. She almost put it back, then decided. “We’ll take them the small bag, it’s better than nothing.”
In the red truck the puppy was stung with one vaccination and had another blown into his nose. Later in a kitchen he was scrubbed in warm soapy water which actually felt pretty good but it was followed with a horrible chemical dip. The old lady rubbed him briskly with a rough towel and put him in a metal cage to dry. He licked at his feet and wondered where his mother was.
At the Pet Adoption Fair people strolled between the cages looking at the different dogs and puppies, some dogs licking fingers, some barking at each new visitor. The pretty lady parked near the red pickup where she could see a pile of old towels and blankets. They had asked for towels and blankets in the newspaper too. Feeling ashamed to be bringing so little, she carried the bag of puppy chow close to her side and walked quickly up to the truck. Inside the truck bed was a rapidly growing pile of small bags of puppy chow, none larger than the one she bore.
The old lady greeted her with a smile. “Thank you and bless you!” she said. “Look how many gifts put together are making a very big gift!”
The old lady brought him two small bowls. In one was fresh clean water, the first he had ever tasted, and in the other was a handful of Puppy Chow moistened with condensed milk. It was absolutely delicious. “Thank you and bless you!” he thought. Then he heard his mother's bark of delight from another room as she sampled her first taste of Puppy Chow. "A wonderful gift," he thought. |
