Sunday, July 7, 2013

Still Thinking about the Needy Dog in Mexico

Dog Years hasn't left me yet. I have been thinking of the stray dog that Doty saw in Mexico. She put her head in his hand in such a way that they had an understanding, a passing realization that each was all right. He fed her, and he tried to sit with her through the night, but the doorman at the hotel kept shooing her away. He left the next day, and did not see the dog again.

Doty wrote that the dog gave him a great gift -- the opening of his heart, still smarting from the loss of a loved pet and a beloved partner. She made him realize he could open himself again.

Today, I saw a Banded Pennant lying flat on a stone beyond my reach in the water. I couldn't tell if it was dead or still alive, but it was surely grounded. I looked, and looked, and looked. I turned to leave, but turned back and saw it make a tiny movement with its front legs. Like Doty, I couldn't just leave without doing something.

I stood on the shore and one loose stone in the water, leaned out, and offered the pointed end of my walking stick. Slowly, I was able to coax the dragonfly onto a grassy stem, but it was so wet that the leaf couldn't support the ode's weight. I refused to walk away.

I leaned out even further and slid the stick up the stem, bringing the ode with it. Finally, the pennant grasped my walking stick, and I brought it to land, gingerly, and  from there to my thumb and then to a broad leaf. It climbed and started to clean its eyes. Its wings, though, soaked, still clung together.

I did what I could.

I left, thinking about Mark Doty and the human need to do what one can for the living thing there, right there, sharing the same space and oxygen. Tonight, I am thinking of the Mexican dog and the Banded Pennant.

2 comments:

melinda said...

i took a cute wirehaired short legged doggie I found wandering the lake road to animal control (he was a puppy and I know was rescued by the local rescue group...and u have to take to animal control before the rescue group can take them) but he was so sweet, once he stopped being afraid of me....drank a ton of water (i always carry a dog bowl & water in the car) and rode in my back seat , standing up, paws on the back of the drivers seat, looking at me in the mirror.....he had lovely eyes......I dared not spend too much time with him as I know what would have happened & my cats would have freaked....but i have wondered what became of him...I picture him running around with a couple of kids in a big yard

Robley H said...

A lovely anecdote, Melinda.