I have lived in my house for quite some time and as the years go by new animals cross my path. I have taken care of the strays and knew each generation by heart and their face. 3 years ago a puppy that i was observing, that belonged to a homeless man, was taken, just grabbed from over the safety of it's fence by some teenagers. And before I knew it, all the strays started leaving the area so naturally I turned my attention to the neighborhood. I had a neighbor who would get a new puppy after the old one would grow too big so she never had one for more than a year and that was upsetting for the puppies to have to go right back where they started. One puppy she gave to the neighbor across from her and they didn't treat her well, she soon became an outside puppy and nobody wanted her because she didn't have shots so she just slept on the porches and hung around. I tried to feed her once but she was so scared of me, i could never come close to petting her. I saved her from a car once and she never forgave me for picking her up lol. She disappeared one day and the neighbors got a new puppy like clockwork. I saved the new puppy from a car as well, (seems like they had no concept of leashes) it was morning and the puppy went under a van so i picked him up and dropped his pudgy body right back in the grass where he belonged.
#Through the Breeze
ivory yew
A few hours later, a different car....came. I was really displeased with the irony, that i had saved him that morning. Present day, some people moved in across from my backyard a couple months back and I have the perfect window view of the house. They got a puppy too, a rottweiler I named breeze cuz she's outside so often, my first time seeing one. I was so Excited, but then she grew too big, too big to buy a diffrent sized cage...too big to be in the house or get playtime. They bully her, they know she is skittish and gesture at her with their hands and their words, sticks, brooms....bikes. Leash too short to go anywhere and shes outside for hours without water. once in a 90 degree heatwave. I recorded the abuse and called animal control. They came over, my concerns were answered, sure. But the dog didn't get a new home, she's still there and i dread my bedroom window, because even though they bought her a new collar, got rid of the small cage, and only sometimes make the leash longer. They slowly but passionately slip back into their old habits of scaring her and cursing at her. But what's an ordinary scholar like me, meant to do. I have nightmares about breeze and when i hold the phone in my hand to record I shake and can hear my heartbeat.