Dumped
This past Sunday morning I was working outside my home -- pulling weeds, trimming hedges, and picking up loose debris -- when a scent hit my nose. It was soft, and slightly sweet, but with an edge like spoiled eggs. Chalking it up to garbage, or a compost pile baking in the Georgia summertime heat, I ignored it. A couple of hours later, my neighbor appeared.
"Do you smell that?", he asked. I confirmed, but guessed it was a temporary situation. My neighbor, much more 'country' than a city boy like myself, replied, "Oh no, that's definitely a critter."
To prove his theory he walked around both our property lines to see if he could find anything. A few minutes later he returned, hand on stomach, and slightly bent forward at the waist.
"I found it."
I walked to the far back corner of my house, an area that has yet to be developed, and is for all intents and purposes a weed garden. I regularly trim and clean it out, but litter bugs mistake it for an empty city lot, and occasionally toss their wares into the unused area. An occasional beer bottle or potato chip bag is hardly a big deal, but this time there was something much larger -- a blue blanket, wrapped around an object, with flies buzzing overhead.
My neighbor had already pulled a portion of the blanket back, and through the opening it was clear what lay inside -- a large gray dog, decomposing in the ninety-degree sun, with maggots crawling every which way.
Since then I've been trying to get the city to come pick the dog up, and I've been promised it will be taken care of today. But since Sunday, the stench, and the presence of the animal has weighed like a ten ton brick on my mind.
Who in their right mind would dump, like garbage, an animal on the side of the road? The dog obviously didn't get there by himself -- someone deliberately wrapped the animal in a household blanket, and placed him in a conspicuous place. It was as if they were trying to hide the animal, while concurrently leaving open the possibility of someone quickly finding him.
And then there is the obvious question -- why didn't the handler simply dig a hole and bury him? Or if they were too lazy, or physically unable, to dig a hole, why didn't they take him out into a thick patch of woods? Additionally, why did they take the time to wrap the animal in a thick blanket if they intended to dump him in an open area? Why not just place the dog on the side of the road and walk off?
The blanket is what bothers me most. It is a sensitive, human touch shrouding an inhuman act. They obviously wanted the dog to be found, but not in a shocking, obvious manner. It was as if they knew what they were doing was wrong, but attempted to soften (and possibly add a hint of dignity) to the act by using a run-of-the-mill household blanket.
I shudder to think of how the dog ended up there. By his thin, wire-like gray hair across his torso, I assume, and hope, he died of old age. I'm not about to go into details, but physically it was impossible to pull the blanket back any farther to reveal more clues. It's far too grisly, and I'm not entirely sure I want to know.
Sometime today the city is supposed to come and dispose of him in a more humane manner. But I will always wonder where he came from, and if he had a good life. I want to believe he did.
