Compassion Is One Size Fits All

by Rachel Gates – Upenn Student

This morning, volunteers Gretchen, Emily, Megan and I went door to door in one of the neighborhoods asking people if they wanted their pets spayed at no cost, or if they refused that offer, we would simply give the animals a dose of pyrantel and flea/tick preventative, to reduce the environmental harm of such parasites. We had a rather successful morning, bringing back two dogs and two cats, as well as treating about six others.

However, the major event of the day came during the sleepy post lunch haze, commonly referred to in Latin culture as siesta. During this siesta, I was comfortably seated on the edge of a rather sparse and severely lacking flower bed, minding my own business and enjoying the heat of midday. A young boy about eight approached me babbling away as young children do. Of course, as my Spanish is far from fluent, the only word I picked up on was “perrito” (puppy). As I glanced down, the boy was clutching a puppy that looked no more than two weeks old who was both terrified and confused. Luckily, our Dr. Wakefield came to my aid and we were about to embark on an epic adventure to find the puppy’s siblings. After walking only about ten meters, we were stopped by an older woman who informed us that this puppy had in fact been found alone in a very large cardboard box out in the street. The puppy has some bald patches that may be attributed to malnutrition or perhaps to some sort of parasites, but is most likely a problem that is easily fixed. After Dr. Wakefield examined the puppy, it was determined that he is probably about two months old and just a tiny breed. Amazing.

As for the puppy in a box you ask? Well as of now, he drank a little water (mostly spat it out), tried to chomp down a bit of food, but chewed my fingers more than the pellets of food, and is now curled up asleep in my lap. Great little puppy, now looking for a new home!