Dead Dogs

In the United States if you are rich you can keep a sick dog alive. If you are poor, you might be able to do the same if you agree to go into substantial debt.

It isn't a bad thing that some sick dogs get to live. I understand as well that not all sick dogs can or should be kept alive. I also understand that animal care is expensive, and caregivers need to make a living, and none appear to be the ultra-wealthy.

I am lucky and can pay to keep my sick dog alive.

25 years ago, I wasn't and couldn't and didn't.

I didn't deserve the hurt then any more or less than I do today.

The dog wasn't at fault.

Inevitable.

That is what my brain screams into my ears.

But its only inevitable inside this system.

The one where credit cards change hands before care is deployed.

It isn't the only model.

It's just the only model we have here.

Historians will say the rest are even more flawed, the other options.

Still it is worth documenting that in current America a person is made to decide financial ruin or a dead puppy.

There are neighbors, there are thousands in fact that want to help my puppy get better.

There are tools online to let people beg their community to help them survive.

I imagine a pretend place where animal doctors care for animals as best they can. They all have warm homes and plenty of healthy food, so they aren't worried about your Credit Score. The young and the old and the poor don't have to hurt more than the rest.

I think about our ancestors, and the stories about families with 12 kids, 8 kids, 15 kids - and inevitably (there's that word again) a few would die. I tried to imagine if it would hurt less, maybe since there were more of them they were somehow less precious individually. Its not true. It wasn't true. Losing someone hurts just as hard the first as the 40th time and I have to be angry.

So I'll be angry at money and how even inside a system that is flawed, maybe there's a way to make everyday life a bit easier...I know people want it.

I know I do.