The Whisperers

A former student rescues dogs, and I mean she rescues them. Right now, she is rehabilitating an older stray whose broken leg was so mangled that it had to be amputated. She used Kickstarter and crowd-sourced support for his medical care, which includes heartworm treatment. She has saved and fostered many others, sending them on to the northeast, where their forever families post happy pictures on her Facebook wall. I keep thinking this dog doesn't need to travel. This one is special. I hope she'll add him to the pet family that already includes one dog and one cat.

She's good with her animals, and it shows.

So is my friend who brought these strays in from the cold -- literally. Rico and Ratty, when they first arrived, separately and at different times, were scruffy beasts, wary in the extreme, wild, even feral. Over the years my friend has had them, they have slowly found home in her expansive yard, where they often sleep in their cardboard box nest on the front porch or sun and snooze on the rocks of the back shed, lit by strong sun. Like most intact males, they had each been solo acts, but now, medically safe and physically sound, they're cuddle-chums, members of a household menagerie that includes three other cats, one out and two in.

She's good with her animals and it shows.

I think of the dog whisperer L and of the cat whisperer J tonight and wish all the strays of this world -- cats, dogs, birds, humans, . . . all living beings -- could find their rescuers, and homes, too.