The right thing to do?

The rescue of zuess

I am not sure what the time is but it feels late at night, i am tucked in my queen sized bed eating olives out of the jar and listening to Taylor swifts album on my cd player if I remember correctly its the year 2017. I am sixteen years old living in my mothers house, every little noise made in this house scared me, the wind howling and the floors creaking always makes me jump.

I remember hearing a loud crashing sound come from outside my bedroom window, my heart sunk I was filled with fear... I new I heard something. I laid still in my bed with my ears and eyes peeled at the window, I was contemplating going outside and seeing what made that noise or staying in bed with the covers over my head!

What did I do? I got out of bed slowly and quietly then walked over to my bedroom door, at this point I could hear a scourging kind of sound. My heart is beating at an alarming rate and I am frozen again with my hand on my door handle, I have to be quiet because I don’t want what ever is outside to know that I am inside!

I took a deep breath and slowly mustered up the courage to open my bedroom door. I step on every third floor board as they don’t creak (this has taken me 16 years to memorise) and make my way to the back door. Again I am paused thinking to myself, what now! The noise is right behind this door, should I approach it quietly and peak at whats making the noise or should I smash open the door and scare it away.

Before much thought I slammed open the back door, turned on the spotlight and yelled “HEY!” In hopes to frighten whatever was out there, only to find the culprit who has been making the ruckus. A dog! It was a large male dog he was unbelievably skinny, timid and had such a sad look on his face. After I realised the scary creature causing havoc outside my bedroom window was just a dog I was the one in shock, I don’t really know what i was expecting, wasn’t a dog thats for sure. I walked out and greeted it slowly as it was very standoffish, the dog came closer and smelt my hand. I went to pat him and he flinched, I am starting to think this dog has never been shown love. He was roaming around late at night, he doesn’t have a collar on and I can see how malnourished and scared he is.

After a while of showing the dog that he can trust me I figured out that he was scavenging through the bins, it must of been looking for food.

Obviously I didn’t let him starve any longer, I ran inside and grabbed whatever I could find in the fridge, leftover chicken, two rashes of bacon and a weird smelling ham at the back of the fridge that was more than likely forgotten about. I filled a bowl of water and went back outside, I put the bowl of water down first and it was almost half done by the time I put all the food I found into one spot on the floor. Immediately after his drink the dogs attention was quickly directed the food and before I new it he had eaten it all, even licking the floor for leftovers.

Sitting on the cold pavers in the middle of the night comforting this dog really got me thinking on what to do next? I wanted to keep this dog I wanted to make sure he was loved and taken care of but then I thought maybe something has happened to his owner, I didn’t want to keep him without knowing what’s actually going on.

I went back inside, I new that the dog would go back to where he came from and thought I could try and follow him home! I quietly but quickly I grabbed my phone and a water bottle, put my socks and joggers on and waited at the back door.

A while past and the dog had finished sniffing around the house and started heading towards the back fence, I snuck out and followed. He crawled through a hole in the fence to my neighbours house then again to the next persons house and ended up 5 houses away. My heart sunk for this poor dog, I have lived in this house for 16 years and ever since I was little one house on the block has had people come and go, rough people mostly who end up being kicked out of the house. That house is where the dog belongs, maybe hes owner left and forgot to take him. I couldn’t be sure so I monitored him, one whole week I snuck out and waited to see where the dog would go and if anyone was home to take care of him.

One week later, nothing, no one. That poor dog had not one pat or one piece of food of his own, he was left scourging through peoples yards and cold of a night. I couldn’t let this happen anyone, I thought to myself obviously no one is coming back for this dog, no one has looked after this dog for a ver long time. The next day I begged my mother to help me save this dog, I needed to rescue him. With a little persuasion she said yes! Now I don’t know if it was the right thing to do but that night I led a trail of food back to the house and when the dog followed I fixed the broken fence behind him.

Years later the scared malnourished and starving dog that was making a ruckus outside of my bedroom window now has a name, Zuess.

Zuess is loved, fed, active and happy. Zuess has his own bed and doesn’t flinch anymore, he found his personality and forever home.

Zuess was rescued, now I am not sure if I was supposed to take him to the pound I just didn’t have it in me and there was not a chance of me leaving him at that house, I took him home. After all these years I new it was the right thing to do.