“Hello…anyone there…hello….” Chris called out around the yard, but nobody was there. The outbuildings looked abandoned, and the house itself seemed unlived in for a long time.
Chris understood that the dog had been stuck in that house since time unknown and was in need of help.
He tried to find a way inside the house, but all the doors and windows were jammed or locked.
When Chris couldn’t find any other entry points, he decided to call the cops to rescue the German Shepherd and figure out where the owner had disappeared. Just as he finished speaking to the dispatcher on 911, something strange drew Chris’s attention.
“Jesus, what’s that awful smell?” he frowned and covered his nose in disgust at what appeared to be the stench of something rotting in one of the buildings nearby.
Just as Chris marched to the source of the smell, the cops arrived and took charge.
“Officer, I was the one who called…My name is Chris,” he greeted the sheriff. “There’s a big dog trapped in that house, and I think the owner is missing.”
The cops broke open the door, and what Chris saw moments later plucked his heart out and moved him to tears.
A huge German Shepherd was brought out on a leash, looking weak and thin due to a lack of food and water. Tears gushed into Chris’s eyes when he saw the dog shakily standing on its paws. It looked like he hadn’t eaten well in days and that the only source of nutrition that kept him alive was the food Ollie had been bringing him daily.
“Hey, Max…hey boy…don’t worry…you’re safe and free now,” said Chris as he patted the dog with a reassuring touch after seeing his name on the collar.
Chris was so furious with the owner for abandoning the dogs in such horrible conditions.
And just as he marched to the cops to file a complaint, he saw two officers running around with a crime scene tape toward one of the outbuildings that emanated the rotting stench.
Moments later, Chris’s mouth twitched, and he almost threw up when he saw a man’s decomposed body being carried out on a stretcher. It shocked him even more when he learned that the dead man was the bike shop owner who had disappeared several weeks ago.
“We’re yet to determine the cause of Mr. Lawrence’s death,” the sheriff told Chris.
“Sources suggest he was a heart patient who lived alone here with his two dogs. It could’ve been a heart attack, but we’re yet to be sure…And these dogs will be sent to the shelter.”
Chris’s heart throbbed, and he didn’t want to leave the poor dogs alone. He knew he couldn’t abandon them after witnessing their distress and the heartbreaking twist of fate.
So he talked to the cop and agreed to adopt the dogs and take them home.
While Max was sent to the veterinary hospital for recovery, Chris took Ollie home with him, knowing Mila would be mad at him again.
“Not again, Chris. I thought we’d lost him,” Mila frowned when she saw Ollie hiding behind Chris’s legs and looking up at her with big, pleading eyes.
To her surprise, Ollie wagged his tail as he slowly approached her. With an eager look in his big coffee brown eyes, the dog extended his paw to Mila.
When the soft pads of his paw met Mila’s hand, tears gushed into her eyes. Later, when Chris told her about the encounter that day, her heart melted and she agreed to adopt the two dogs. A couple of weeks later, Chris and Mila were the happiest dog parents when they welcomed Max home from the hospital.
What can we learn from the story?
