Your Photos, Poems & Stories

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Thanks to The Noyes Family for sharing this photo and story. 

View more letters from members here.

 

Pictured at top right: Missy

Missy was a black lab/shepherd mix shelter dog - around eight years old - with torn ACL's in both rear legs. No one wanted her; she was old, sad, smelly and physically and emotionally broken down. Missy was homeless and in the same predicament as millions of people throughout our country.
 
Homeless dogs (especially older ones) and homeless people have so many common traits. Folks walk by homeless people without even looking at them in every city across America each and every day. In animal shelters the same thing happens to the old and unwanted dogs - people walk right by them without so much as a glance as they search for that cute little puppy or that handsome young dog.
 
The old and unwanted aren't even acknowledged - it's a sickness that pervades our society in so many ways. I think of homeless and lonely veterans in the V A hospitals throughout the country who never get a visitor who will simply sit down to hear their story and say "thank you" for providing for and protecting the freedoms that we all enjoy from their sacrifices. I think of lonely folks in nursing homes that have no one or nothing to look forward to each day as time just marches on, seemingly unaware that they even exist.
 
While working in downtown Chicago I became friends with one of the homeless guys who always panhandled in the same exact spot on a bridge that I crossed every day to get to my office. I took John to Taco Bell or McDonald's (his favorites) once a week and what struck my soul in a powerful way was when he told me that the thing that hurt the most was simply not being looked at by people as they walked by him (by the thousands) on that bridge every day.
 
He said "if people would just look me in the eyes and say hello, or ask me what my name is, 1'd feel human again".
 
That was a powerful statement that shook me to the roots of my being. This was Missy's life as well. This precious dog spent six long and lonely months in a shelter in suburban Chicago, watching each day as people walked right by her cage without so much as a glance. No one cared about her or wanted to know her name. She was physically and mentally broken down, just like my homeless friend named John in downtown Chicago.
 
When my wife and I took Missy for walks (we volunteered at the shelter), Missy was so withdrawn that she very simply broke our hearts. I told Kris one night that "Missy is our dog and she's coming home", and my wife smiled in happy agreement. We brought her home, and Missy was now family.
 
She endured a number of surgeries and ultimately had to have one rear leg amputated. Missy didn't mind - she had a home now, with people to protect and cats to chase, even if she had to drag herself around the house in order to play with them. Her physical handicap meant nothing to her - she was a dog and she was alive again.
 
She took her new position of "home guardian" very seriously - she had ajob to do and she did it to perfection. She grew a gorgeous, silky black coat of fur (a sign of happiness), and she was the most phenomenal, wonderful companion for the past six years that any person could ever dream or hope for.
 
I'm sure that the homeless guy down the street or on a bridge somewhere would be a good lunch buddy for someone too, if that person could only look past the dirty clothes and unshaven face to see the human being that resides within.
 
Missy loved us - her family - with a pure and unconditional love that we'll always hold deep in our hearts. She left us to go to Heaven this past Monday, and we've cried a river as we mourn our loss.
 
This unwanted, homeless old dog was the most beautiful (inside and out) animal I've ever known, and she'll be in my heart and in my thoughts always, until we meet again someday in the future.
 
If only more people across the country and throughout the world would just take time to look into the eyes of that old, smelly, unwanted shelter dog they would fmd the best friend they could ever dream of. I know from experience that a lot of homeless, forgotten and neglected people wish for the same thing - that someone would look into their eyes and see the person hungering not just for food, but for a friend.
 
To Missy - our wonderful, beautiful, phenomenal friend - we love you so, so much. You enriched our lives and we know in our hearts that we'll be together again. Thank you for sharing your final years with us and for teaching us so much about what love and compassion really are.
 
The Noyes family, Clearwater, Minn.

For more photos see the Paw Prints Community on the Best Friends Network