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Life is unpredictable and ever-changing. We see hundreds of faces every day, and a few of them we never see again the next day. But today I will not talk about human lives. Today I want to talk about stray pets in my neighborhood. Stray pets never get any attention other than negative attention. People throw stones at them, make them flee, even pets turn against each other, and bully them. It’s not a pretty sight.

I will admit that I have never been compassionate about stray pets before, but what I’m about to tell you today is a story that hurts my soul and conscience a lot. How could the world be so cruel was hard to digest. Up until last year, my house was very broken down and construction as well as renovation works were going on for almost 2 years. It would have been qualified as an archaeological dig (just kidding). Stray pets were a common sight in my house. They will live on the 2nd floor where the construction work is still unfinished. I and my family didn’t mind that they were living in that floor. It sort of gave us a feeling of safety. The stray dogs will bark every time a stranger came to our house. This was quite a regular scene at our house.

There’s this female dog that was more frequent at our house than any other. 4 years ago it gave birth to 5 pups and among those 3 of them died. A girl and a boy remained. The mother and the 2 pups would live on the 2nd floor of our house. We could hear their movement through the roof. The girl grew up and she gave birth to 3 pups last year in October. I and my sister were looking for names to name them. We named them Wolfie (girl), Jumbo (boy), and Bruno (boy).

Wolfie was a scared little one and very shy, and for some unknown reason, we all took a liking to her. She would call out at the door, circle around our feet; it was a heartwarming sight. Wolfie had an accident (I don’t remember the exact incident but it was caused by a reckless driver) and that had crippled one of her legs. She would have a hard time walking or running. We would help her with food and water as she was not capable of finding food herself. Later on, I saw that the food that we’d give her, other strays will fight her for it and snatch it away. Then we decided to drop extra food so Wolfie can eat peacefully. We also noticed that few local kids would beat and torture her every day and some other guys would save her. Even at times, the stray dogs would bully her. This continued for days on end.

Wolfie was suffering a lot and she would feel down most days and it was unsettling to us what was going with her. We had made a makeshift place for her to stay at our house away from others. A few days later (in January this year), at one night, we were hearing a lot of strays barking at a distance. But we didn’t pay much attention to it as it was a regular occurrence. The next morning, we couldn’t find Wolfie anywhere. The whole day had gone by and she was nowhere in sight. We asked a few local people if they have seen her, but they didn’t. We were thinking maybe she left the area. Even the day after, we couldn’t find her in the area. Two days had passed and she was missing. It was the day later (it was a Friday) when a renovation worker told me that he had found Wolfie at a desolated corner of the ground floor. I rushed there to see her, she was scared, alone, and crying. I quickly brought some food and water. But as soon as I touched her I felt that she had a high fever. To this day I do not know how long she has been hiding in that corner without any food or drinks. I felt so sad for her. I quickly brought in wet towels to wipe her; she physically seemed fine except for the fever. She had no wounds on her body but the fever was high and no matter how much I insisted, she didn’t eat nor drank any water. We all checked up on her from time to time but it’s like she wouldn’t stop crying. At that point, her fever was rising. We took her inside the 1st floor where we were living and also took her makeshift bed and put her there. As there were no veterinary doctors nearby, we thought of taking her to the doctor in the morning. Saturday morning we woke up and my sister went to check on Wolfie. She wasn’t moving. Wolfie was neither crying nor making any movement. My sister called me to see what’s wrong with her. I placed my hand on her to wake her up; her body was cold. Wolfie had died already

I don’t have words to explain how I felt that day, the day Wolfie died. I don’t know what had hurt me more, the torture she suffered, not knowing what she went through that night or that the death was a means relief for her. I know that I alone couldn’t have saved her and wished I had done more. I will never forget her suffering or my lack of trying harder. So many months have passed and I still have so many mixed emotions over her death. Regret, hurt, guilt for not doing more for her still overwhelms me at times.

I wish I could say more of how overwhelmed I feel about Wolfie’s death. I wish her peace and bless her soul. May Allah bless her innocent soul. As I find death as a final destination, I will overcome every struggle that I face. I have faced many struggles and I will move on forward. And I’m determined to be more compassionate about ever life. I have realized, life isn’t short; life isn’t long; it’s precise. It’s what you make out of that time what matters most. So do not let any struggles of life put you down. Learn from it; move forward. Have courage and compassion in your heart and you will have the ability to change your surroundings. I have found this poem somewhere (I have never heard of this poet before) but the words match so much that I had to share:

Life and death; without one there cannot be the other.
For some, it's short, but they live it like no other.
For most, it's long, and to be happy they don't ever bother.
Life cannot be lived without the love of others.

The second we are born is the second we begin to die.
As a child, we live life, and don't worry why.
As we grow, it gets tougher and we don't want to try.
Like everything else, it will end and we'll have to say goodbye.

Whether it's twenty years or one hundred-twenty,
Live it with a purpose to be greater than many.
Most likely life will be long;
So live it with the future in mind
Because if you act in the moment life is never kind.
by Elizabeth McCrorie

With this note, I wish everyone look forward to every day as a new adventure and a challenge. Believe me, you’ll get through this. Get help if needed, help someone if you can. Do not push away a helping hand and be a helping hand to someone.