Search & Rescue

Miracles happen.

After six days without food or water, after his stray mother had been trapped and taken away, after more than one fruitless under the house search - the only surviving puppy in a litter of five got tangled in a maze of insulation, asbestos and chicken wire and began to cry. Another search and rescue party was immediately organized and the little orphaned mutt was brought to warmth and safety. My friend Michael, muttering and complaining every step of the way, made him a bed of a cardboard box and an old sweatshirt, filled a hot water bottle, and began the slow process of foster parenting - feedings every few hours from an eye dropper, keeping a careful watch, providing a warm bath and a trip to the vet the very next day. My friend Michael - impatient, demanding, unsentimental and totally immune to puppy eyes and sad, endearing puppy faces - had been taken in hook, line and sinker.

I visited last night and found the two of them together in the upstairs den. The cardboard box and sweatshirt had been replaced with an unused plastic litter box and several thick towels and the puppy was now wide eyed and walking although his progress seemed to involve mostly taking a few steps and then falling over or bumping into a random object and then falling over. He smelled of milk, puppy breath and scented soap and looked like a tiny, fat, short legged little bear cub. Michael has named him Miracle.

Strange bedfellows indeed.