Raven's Diary

Today I saw a man, a black man, smallish built with surgical gloves blue overall; walk past me carrying two black bags…

In SA that’s not unusual; is it? A black bag has so many uses, from storing household rubbish to being used as a suitcase to being worn as a raincoat. Well as this man walked down the gravel road I focused on the black bags figuring out it’s contents. The shape was unusual, nothing I had seen before. It couldn’t be rubbish as it didn’t bulge like a rubbish bag would, well like mine usually do. I focused in more and then went ice cold, it hit me…there was a euthanized dog in each bag.

They must have been small as they only took up the space of the width of the bag. They must have been light enough for a smallish built man to carry one in each hand. What they were or what they looked like or what their story is I will never know. All I know is that they didn’t deserve the end they got. All I know is that an entity classified as human was the cause of their suffering. All I know is that an angel classified as a human being saved it from continued suffering.

That man and his fellow workers have to deal with this everyday, it’s part of their job description. Would you smile and be happy to go to work if your job description called on you holding a dog down to be “humanely” disposed of, then placed into black bags and carry those bags all the way to the incinerator? What does that do to a person?

There’s so much sadness in this world; why must higher beings be kicked down to our level, we as humans are not worthy of living on this planet, no wonder the world will come to an end and start over again. Hopefully the next earth will get it right!

With the amount of paws we have at the moment it’s difficult to give individual attention so we decided that Sundays was to become doggy day where one dog gets taken on an outing.

So this Sunday past it was Kodi’s turn and did he impress us. We left rather early and our first stop was furpappa’s kungfu training spot. That was a quick dash around the resevoir, a little bit off leash. Then we stopped at Settler’s Park and walked over various terrain. Streams, tall grasses, gravel, concrete, tar, grass. He gave a poor guinea fowl the fright of his life and the poor thing managed to fly high up a tree and then proceeded to squawk murderously for quite some time. Off to Marine drive we go and we spotted the beach stalls out so we thought mmmm let’s give it a try. Boy oh boy was Kodi the model citizen. Amongst droves of people, noises, smells and some other furry creatures out and about he didn’t bark once! He even got sniffed up by a lady jack russel. An old man stopped too and admired his beauty, hehehe. The fudge man said he must be mamma’s boy! Some other not so pet friendly patrons jumped and squeaked out of our way – what a pleasure to walk when the pathway gets opened for you. The three of us enjoyed a hotdog and then we were off again. Next stop Schoenies for a quick sniff. Then we headed to Kragga kamma for mommy’s meeting where he met a horse and a very large pure white great dane the size of a shetland called Pablo. We headed off to next meeting location a big open field and there he walked around off leash as he was so tired by then. We were all totally bushed after the 4 hour outing and were glad to get home to chill.

This holiday couldn’t have come at a better time…it was actually overdue already. It took us a month of intense preparation – dog related only – to enable us to go away for a week. Fences were built in back yard to protect my plants and the birds….almost every second day something had to be added as the terrorizer named Mitsu got in or over. Then we realised the weekend before leaving that we’ll have to fence up a section in the front yard for Bentley. Fortunately that took 2 days and it was up and stable. I had to borrow a kennel and then we realised that it wouldn’t provide enough shade so another plan had to added. Oh and I had to interview and hire a professional to babysit for us. Fortunately I found the perfect candidate and she is awesome. As if all that wasn’t enough the evening before we left the gate motor packed up, yet again, that motor has just been trouble in the 4 years we’ve had it. So we chained the gate and gave the babysitter the 1 key and was hoping the employee had the other to open for us the next morning. Well he didn’t. So some DIY tricks had to be sorted so that we could get out of the yard and then more DIY so that no one notices the gate can be pulled open. Fortunately during that day the employee was able to get keys from babysitter and then make a copy and all ended well with that. But sheesh there must always be something!

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Through my frantic search for a permanent home for Bentley by sending posters wherever I could, someone finally responded and actually rocked up for a visit. Hear my sarcasm…there were one or two that showed much interest over the phone but then didn’t rock up for appointment so I wasn’t too hopeful for anyone else. Anyway, the lady and her husband came and Bentley was very protective over his home so he barked a bit to warn them. But it wasn’t even five minutes and then he was lying down on the grass beside us and we all got to know each other. I started getting scared though as all of a sudden the immense pressure of responsibility came over me and it knocked me a bit, I wanted to hold on and not let go. The lady instantly fell in love with him though and I could tell by her stories of her other pets how much she also loves animals. This made me feel a little more relaxed. He can’t go immediately though they must first set up their new home so I still have a while to get used to the idea of having him go. Bentley will get another visit tomorrow and this time we’ll probably go for a walk….I’ve invested so much of my soul into him it’s going to be tough to let go…

….to visit a friend!

Three years ago a dear friend made an error in judgment and got caught landing him up in prison amongst real criminals. He’s been on our minds all this time and we kept saying we MUST go visit but then days months eventually years past by.

Over the weekend we committed to going and we did!

We had no idea what to do or what was in store for us…

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