Counter Surfers Unlimited
CAN ANYONE HELP MY COUSIN SADIE?
Copyright Jim Willis 2001 -
Shared with permission
I'm addressing this to all humans. I need help! My name is Stella and
I'm a purebred dog - what you'd call a "breeder." I live in a huge
high-volume kennel in Missouri. There are a couple thousand dogs
here. I've been here about 8 years (that's human years) and I
figure I've had at least 200 puppies. At least.
Oh, I don't want to give you the wrong idea...I'm not in any danger, or
anything like that. There are people here who take care of us.
They probably each have about 100 dogs with litters of puppies to take
care of, but they eventually get around to each of us. I know I
get at least one pat on the head per day. I have a stainless steel
cage and there's room enough to lie down and turn around. We get
two meals a day, just dry kibble, and at least the water is clean. They
even have veterinarians who work here. At first it struck us as odd that
they could find people who studied to be doctors and took an oath about
compassionate care of animals to work here, but they did.
But enough about me, it's my cousin Sadie I'm worried about. You
see, I haven't seen her since we were puppies. We can't write or
call of course, but I hear things occasionally through the "grapevine."
Some of the delivery trucks that take all the puppies from where I am to
pet shops, also stop at the place where Sadie is, in Kansas. I hear
things...and they worry me.
I've heard Sadie lives in a cold and drafty barn. That's how it is in
the winter, in the summer time the barn is an oven. The man who
runs the place hardly has any help, and Sadie's in there with a couple
hundred dogs. They have their cages up off the floor with wire
bottoms, so that they're easy to hose down, dogs and all (although I
hear they rarely clean them), and I'm afraid that wire must hurt Sadie's
paws. I've also heard the dogs get moldy food once a day, that their
water, if they have it at all, is days old and dirty. Sadie has had even
more puppies than I've had and I've heard about half of them have died.
Poor Sadie! I'm just heartsick over this and I don't think there's
a thing I can do about it. I expect I'll be here over the next couple of
years, and after that, who knows? But I'd at least like to know how
Sadie is, and I know if she were here with me living in luxury, she'd
join me in asking one more question.
If you all have enough puppies now, do you think we might go home
sometime soon? I'm not really sure what a "home" is, but I hear the
people here talk about going "home" at the end of the day, and they tell
me my puppies have all gone to "homes." I figure me and Sadie might like
to try out a "home" someday and see if it's to our liking.
Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated!
Sincerely,
Your Friend, Stella
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