May you know what love is

On October 1, a quiet early morning at home was interrupted by the loud cries of a dog.

I have heard that distressed sound a number of times in Tobago when people get new canines that are unaccustomed to being locked in small kennels. Confined, craving freedom, they cry until they can cry no more.

Thinking that someone living on another street behind the house had acquired and kennelled a new dog, I did not respond to the cries with any urgency. With a busy day away from home ahead of me,. I decided I would go tomorrow, to find and speak with the owners and recommend a runline, which would at least enable the dog to have movement while still being secured.

I was out for most of the day and returned late that evening. Tired, I fell asleep before eight.

The dog’s cries woke me at 2 am. At that point I realised that this was not a dog in a kennel. It was a dog either in extreme pain or trapped somewhere – or both.

To determine where the sound was located, I went out to the back yard. I heard anguished cries of an animal coming from dense bushes behind the fence. Tortured by the unearthly howls but not wanting to investigate on my own at that hour, I stayed awake, waiting until daylight.

At earliest dawn, armed with a big stick and torchlight, I jumped across two drains to get to the bushes, which were unusually dense due to the recent rainfall. I beat a path through them and saw a dog’s still, silent body. Was it dead?

In the dim light I observed a slight movement of the stomach. Had the poor creature been poisoned and crawled there to die?

I cleared more bush, to access him from the front. He was a large, beautiful male dog, looking like a black Labrador. No vomit, no swelling, no bleeding from mouth or other orifices. Maybe he had not been poisoned after all...but, clearly traumatised, he had dragged himself into the bushes and become entangled. I cut the thick vine entwined around his genitals and hind legs. Had that caused his torment, while also restricting blood flow?

Large, shiny green flies settled on his upper left side, seemingly lining up to feast on the buffet offered by an open wound. Running my gloved hands along his body, I was shocked to find a gaping chop wound along his spine...a raw, pink, canyon, inches deep, infested with myriads of tiny maggots.

My first thought was that only extreme anger could have triggered this level of force.

Calls to two veterinarians went unanswered that early in the morning. With the help of a neighbour and a sheet of wood as a makeshift stretcher, the dog was lifted and carried to my vehicle.

Despite his pain, not once did that gentle, trusting animal snap or growl. Able to raise the upper half of his body, he drank the water I poured into his mouth, gazing through large brown eyes as we stroked his head. He was full bodied, with fur that was like velvet. He had no ticks, fleas or blemishes. Was he someone’s pet?

By then, the TTSPCA Vet Clinic was open, so a friend and I rushed him there. En route I named him Viking, for his courage.

“What extreme anger!” the vet exclaimed when she saw the gaping wound.

The chop had severed Viking’s spine through the cartilage between two vertebrae. Euthanasia was our collective agreement. As Dr Small administered the final injection, I stroked Viking’s head, saying repeatedly: “You’re a good boy. You did nothing wrong.”

He left this earth knowing that.

In the initial ending to this article, I was angry and frustrated...fuelled by the continued senseless violence against vulnerable animals and the continued lack of justice that ensues.

Albert Einstein is purported to have said: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results."

In this vein it would be insane to call or wish yet again, for justice to be served for the senselessly slain animals of TT. Has that justice ever been served? Will it ever be?

Maybe, instead, we need to wish for those who think nothing of slaughtering the innocents to miraculously learn what love is. Perhaps, when they know, they will be incapable of committing such heinous acts.