Me and Fred
Fred is my second dog. My wife rescued him in 2013. He was about to be euthanized. I carried him from the post where he had been chained by the local city pound to our car. Fred bonded with me at that moment.
I suspect Fred was two years old when we brought him home. He had a deformed paw. The Vet said it could have been a genetic birth defect or some early injury caused by abuse.
It was evident that Fred had been severely abused as a pup.
Still, he clung to me. He tagged behind me everywhere I went. He was terrified of human feet. It would take me three years of training, beginning with Fred lying near my feet, before he completely trusted my feet. Now he comes to my feet, rolls on his back and begs for a belly feet rub. He loves for me to rest my feet on his back.
How could anyone abuse a puppy?
Fred is smart, perceptive – he understands all my gestures and my talks to him. I can say ball, bone, sit, feet, lay down, come, stop, quiet, watch, I love you Fred, and he responds to the language.
Like millions of other children, I was abused as a child—sometimes quite brutally. It created a burning lava-like anger in my psyche. That led to a flawed social understanding and some catastrophic life choices. But there were times in my prison life where the anger served me well and aided in my survival. It was too often a natural response in “the belly of the beast.”
I was 30 years of age when I walked away from the dark side of my life. The bitter harvest was over and done with. Like Fred, I forced myself to trust, to respect, and to love.
As Fred has conquered his fear of feet, I conquered the anger that resided in the recesses of my tortured soul.
Fred and I became best friends because we trust each other. I sit on the porch, glass of cold tea in hand, while Fred lies a few feet away—eyes, nose, ears still vigilant of any potential threat but relaxed because I am relaxed. We are at peace.
But our country is not at peace.
It’s now—quite possibly irretrievably—soiled with racial hatred, political divisions, and angry social unrest. America has not only lost its way, but its very soul. Make America Great Again and Build Back Better is all bullshit. Americans have been a mean-spirited people ever since those fucked up Pilgrims put their dirty feet on Native Indian land.
So what does that have to do with me and Fred?
The Covid pandemic has brought death, financial ruin, long-term yet not understood after effects, fear, and a take-no-prisoners war between the sane and insane, to tens of millions of Americans. You would think that would be enough to keep the American people occupied.
But it hasn’t.
Child physical abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse—mostly parents on their children—has skyrocketed 20 to 70 percent, depending upon where you live. The same is true with puppies—animal cruelty and torture has dramatically increased, even though we don’t keep count of abused puppies.
And, how could grown people physically or sexually abuse a child, especially if you are a parent, or kick or torture a puppy, especially if it’s your own?
Actually it’s pretty simple.
There are millions of Americans who believe Donald Trump is still flying around the world in Air Force one; that Democrats are demonic reptilian creatures who canalize babies; that a Dark State cabal of the most wealthy are pedophiles who kidnap 150,000 children each year to sexually exploit them; that New Age math says 74 million votes are more than 81 million votes; and that Elvis was seen golfing (and groping) Sen. Krysten Sinema during her fund-raising trip to Europe.