Frozen Tears

While out searching for Madison – the rescued dog from Texas that fled Midway Airport last Friday, someone came upon this deceased dog on the railroad tracks. 

Katie and I picked him up and put him in her vehicle last night.  She took this poor lifeless dog to Animal Control to be scanned for a micro-chip, to determine if someone is looking for him, or if he is yet one more abandoned dog, like far too many out there today.  I’ve talked to several railroad workers who tell me that there are numerous lost and abandoned dogs on the railroad tracks all around Chicagoland – both alive and dead.

As Katie’s efforts continue to rescue a homeless dog living on the grounds of a cemetery, I’m heading back to Cook County today, still sadly attempting to rescue Little Cookie, who has been living out there for over a year now.  And last night, after retrieving this poor dead dog’s body from the tracks, I penned the following:

Frozen Tears

“In a perfect world, animals would be free to live their lives to the fullest:
Raising their young, enjoying their native environments,
And following their natural instincts.
However, domesticated dogs and cats cannot survive ‘free’ in our concrete jungles,
So it is our God-given responsibility, to take as good care of them as possible.”

Out walking the railroad tracks yet once again
In search of yet one more freezing, starving pet
When someone came upon this deceased canine
In our uncaring world, yet one more needless death

 I could not tell if this poor dog had died from starvation
Or, like so many others, had now perished from exposure
We picked him up and placed him in the back of the truck
Sadly resuming our search for the other poor waif out there

And now, my sad thoughts wandered back to New Orleans
Where I had found so many deceased ‘left behind’ dogs and cats
Our pets give us their all, and they depend on us for their survival
Yet today, so many of us abandon them, even discard them like trash

And as I walked on, on those railroad tracks, hoping that the next one was alive
I lamented the horrid fact, that our species has become, so self-centered and cruel
The emaciated frozen canine that we found today deserved far better from mankind
For him, and for all just like him, I shed another frozen tear, in my Below Zero Blues
 

©January 2014, Ed Kostro

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