Compassion...

Her eyes were huge, black and shiny with intense fear. She stood cowering at a doorway as the man approached. He had a soothing voice and a non-threatening manner but she growled and snapped. He didn’t leave. He stayed and talked to her for a while but she kept growling and baring her teeth. She was skinny and hurt and shivered uncontrollably through it all. Gradually the man’s voice got through to that part of her that had been buried under pain and abuse and abandonment. A dim memory grew stronger – the memory of a time when soft hands had petted her, when her belly was full, when there was warmth around her.

She was still terrified. She yet snapped at the blanket the man was using to stroke her softly. He kept soothing her with a loving voice. He told her she was a good, lovely girl and that everything would be all right. He wouldn’t hurt her. She didn’t have to be scared anymore. Slowly, she stopped trembling, she leaned into the stroking blanket and looked up with the tiniest ray of hope in her expressive eyes. They seemed to beg the world not to cause her any more pain. She had been through enough.

The man gently coaxed her closer and began to stroke her with his hand instead of the blanket. The connection seemed to break the wall of fear that she had built around her in order to survive, however miserably. She trusted the man and came even closer. He pulled her on to his lap and praised her lavishly for being so good and so brave. He promised her he would take care of her and off they went together.

Days later, she looked like a different dog entirely. Her coat was clean and glossy. Her bones no longer poked starkly against her skin. She looked happy and active. But most importantly, the shadows of fear had fled from her eyes. She was rescued.

This is not a story – it is a video I had watched on Facebook about rescuing abandoned dogs; one of the many links that one sees posted daily. I watched it and was moved. The idea that all it took was a little bit of genuine love and caring to alter fear-fuelled violent behaviour into calm, responsive behaviour was truly amazing. We all know the power of love but few understand it with the depths of their soul. The man with his wonderful voice and even more wonderful heart reaching across to an animal no one wanted and who was showing him the worst side of her nature in an attempt to keep away from more hurt, spoke to me in more ways than one. It is easy to be angry and violent if that is the path one chooses but it is far more difficult to keep life’s hurts from transforming you into a hard, implacable creature and instead continue to keep the flame of humanity and compassion alive in you.A beautiful message indeed and one that works for us all…