I’m not writing anything right now, but I ran across this description from a project I was working on before everything happened and I just loved it, so maybe, when the time is right, I’ll get back to this story and these characters. Gotta love a dog and a man who loves one!
There’s a scratching at the screen door and Cal smiles. He gets up from the swing and opens the door for Enzo, his three-legged chihuahua terrier mix, adopted almost a year ago at the Beaver County Humane Society. The dog comes out, sniffs the air a bit, and saunters over to the swing. He’s on it before Cal even has the chance to sit back down.
“You get around better than most dogs with all four on the floor,” Cal says, grinning and falling in love all over again with the little guy. “Hell, you do better than most two-legged critters.”
Enzo has been his inspiration, his guiding star, his hope, and his salvation ever since he signed the adoption papers. He’d been abandoned, hit by a car—hence the amputation—and generally thrown out like a piece of garbage, at only two years old. And yet, Cal knew someone had once loved him. When he brought Enzo home, Cal discovered in short order that the dog was not only completely housebroken, but also trained to sit, stay, fetch, shake hands, and even roll over. In the car, Enzo insisted on the window nearest him being down, so he could stick out his head and sniff.
Cal wondered who this mystery person was, this dog-lover who’d obviously had much love for the little brown-eyed dog, who’d invested a lot in his care and training. What had happened to that person? What had brought Enzo to the sad state of affairs where he was discovered on the side of the road, bleeding, leg broken, and drawing his last breaths? He wouldn’t have lasted much longer had not a good Samaritan happened by who took him to the Humane Society.
Now, the dog lay next to him, curled into a tight little ball, snoring.
Cal thought that, even though Enzo had been a kind of savior to him, his own personal Jesus, if you will, he was also part of the cause of Cal’s isolation and—at times—loneliness. It was too easy to give up on people when you had such an amazing canine companion by your side.
Enzo never judged, loved unconditionally, and always listened.
How many people could Cal say the same about?
