05/15/2026
Saving Larry
Last winter, late at night, I received a text on my scars page with a picture of a starving dog collapsed on cement. The story that followed was alarming and I contacted the people who wrote to me immediately. What followed was ten days of agony praying he would live and be released by his uncaring owners. I will not go into details but he was saved four hours before a powerful ice storm was to hit Topeka.
Once safe in the car, I rushed him to the vet and he was weighed at 45 lbs. He was thirty pounds underweight for a Border Collie/Pyrenees and I had to move fast to save him. Every time I sat down a bowl of food, he knocked it out of my hands in desperation and this continued for months. But he slowly began to fill out and his coat became glossy. We kept him isolated from the other dogs and too much activity but as he grew stronger he was allowed the daily walk to the pond.
One day he went too far around the pond and he disappeared under the dock on the other side. In terror, I began running as fast as I could calling his name but I only saw splashing water through the trees, but no dog. Somewhere along the endless path around our huge pond I lost my phone and one shoe ,but I ran and ran. “ I cannot lose him” was pounding in my head and as I rounded the corner and collapsed on the bank where he had crawled out, muddy and scared, but alive. After that, Keith pulled the dock out of the water and put it on the burn pile.
Weeks turned into months and he grew stronger and stronger. His voracious appetite never waned and I began giving him smaller portions once he reached 70 lbs. He settled down, played with the other dogs but he had a longing in his eyes and I knew he needed his own home.
And then the phone call same that would change his life. The couple sounded too perfect to be true. They loved big dogs, were retired, had a big house and yard and they thought he was beautiful.
The new owners and their friends took him home two days ago. He is a wonderful dog, they tell me. And I remembered the picture of him that frigid night, collapsed on concrete, broken, protruding bones, his face blank and lost. He was dying. And I remember lying awake at night, listening to the sleet and wondering if he was still alive while we fought to save him. The authorities, as always, did not help nor did they care. But those of us that did care kept fighting for him until he was released.
There is a storm coming tonight. The wind is picking up and I see flashes of lightening in the distance and soon the rain will come. And I close my eyes and picture a black and white dog, once broken, who is safe and loved.
