Nola and Compassion
The look in Nola's eyes is one I've seen before. Its message is clear and undeniable. Hopelessness. She has given up on any expectation of kindness or relief from her misery.
It takes a lot for any living being to reach the point of no longer asking, of lying quietly in complete submission to whatever the next indignity may be. What is the point in asking when there is no one to answer your pleas?
That's where Nola is.
The picture below arrived on my Facebook page Sunday evening. It is and was hard for me to look at. Her poor, starved body says everything about the conditions she has lived in. She is skeletal thin, and her head looks abnormally large for her body.
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Nola
The text accompanying her picture says she is out of time at a Southside Virginia county shelter, and is scheduled to die on Monday morning if no one comes forward for her. To read those words and know that what has clearly already been a miserable life will end in this way makes my heart both ache and rage.
I have to believe that human beings have the opportunity to show their best and their worst in the way they treat those less powerful in the chain of life. Not only is Nola an example of someone's unthinkable neglect, she is also proof that many of our communities have no system in place for helping her. In the county facility where she ended up, the solution to her mistreatment was to end her life.
The Franklin County Humane Society in Rocky Mount, Virginia stepped forward to save her life yesterday morning. A volunteer drove her from the county shelter to a local veterinarian known for his compassionate treatment of shelter dogs.
Nola is now safe. But she has a hard road ahead of her. She has a mass on one of her paws. She is emaciated and malnourished. She is heartworm positive. However, she is now in the hands of people who want to see her flourish, who will work to raise the money for her treatment, who will treat her with kindness and respect and find reward in the moments when she shows her happiness over such small joys as a cookie before bedtime.
Simply enough, she will be treated with compassion. And hopefully, as she absorbs each morsel of human kindness, she will begin to hope again, and even to anticipate the next rub, the next treat, the next smile. I look forward to seeing those pictures of her in the weeks ahead.
If you would like to help with Nola's care, any and all donations are greatly appreciated. Please click here. Compassion for Nola. Or paste this link in your browser. http://www.plannedpethoodrocky mount.com/donate.html
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Nola Now Being Cared For
