A Poem for Cole

My name is Cole

My first human only wanted me for money and image

Not for the love I wanted to give

When my human grew tired he threw me away

In a busy parking lot I laid

Skinny and thirsty, too week to move

I watched as people passed by

Pretending they didn't see

pretending that there was no dog laying nearly dead by a tree

Then a woman stopped to look at me

but then she ran back to her car and drove away

And so I laid there alone thinking this was the end

Sad and tried under that tree

Thinking that no one would ever see all the love I could give

But what I didn't know was

That the woman hadn't gone far

In fact she had gone just across the street in her car

To a pet store

She ran to were the adoptions were being held

And told them that there was a dead dog

Under a tree in the parking lot next door

The rescuers looked at each other in disbelief

and quickly left to go see

Surely there wasn't a dog laying dead under a tree

A short time later I heard someone call to me

felt water being placed in the hole I had dug under the tree

I tried to get up to greet these new people

but my body just couldn't move anymore

only my tail which was wagging in glee

Then one of the rescuers picked me up and put me in the back of a car

they took me back to the pet store

Put me in a buggie then took me to the back

Once I was on the ground they fed me and gave me water

And the girl who had lifted me into the the car

told me I would never have to go back

to that hole I dug under that tree

or to the Human who had abandoned me

They told me that my breed did not matter

That they would watch over me

Later that day I went to live with a man

The kind people who had helped me called him a foster

But I stayed until he couldn't keep me any longer

I went back to the pet store over a year later

and from there to a place I had never seen before

They called it a kennel

The people were nice but I had to stay in a pen

And watch as other dogs got to leave again and again

But then I saw A face that I knew

It was the girl who had lifted me into the car

She came and they let me out of my pen

She promised me that I was going home soon

But then she left and I was back in the pen once again

A few weeks later another woman came

She loaded me into a car and took me away

I was scared and sat shaking in the front seat of her car

Sure they were putting me back under that tree

She drove and she drove not once did we stop

Passing parks and kids and owner walking their dogs

Then we pulled in to a drive of a old house

I thought I as being abandoned yet again

But there on the porch I saw the girl

The one who had lifted me into that first car

And the one who had visited me at that kennel

She took my leash and brought me inside

We went through the house

And through the back door out into a yard

She told me to greet my brothers and sister

Because this was my home at least for a while

But now just a few months later

I get to sleep on the couch

And play in that yard

I go to the dog park

and walk around the neighbor hood

And the girl who helped me by not fearing my breed

Says that this is my home

that I am a foster no more

No longer will I roam

forgotten and alone

for now I have a Home

A human that loves me because of the love I can give

And people who love me because of the same love

I am a lucky one

A Pit Bull who was saved from the brink of death

But many more aren't and still need your help

My human still fosters and I still inspire

A breed that some believe should be destroyed

I am living proof that all it takes is a kind hand to turn any dog in the right direction

Whether we are small or fluffy

Large or sick

Skinny or mistreated

Loving humans can make our lives better

So we can make other peoples lives better

By just being good dogs.
-Submitted by Meaghan Shinomori