A Little Lost Dog

The four-day Easter long weekend was welcomed with open arms in my household. Our self-imposed Lenten restrictions were lifted; we spent quality time with family members; we celebrated an important holiday and we enjoyed some much needed rest and relaxation. Circumstances still sneaked in a surprise for us to deal with - an unexpected visitor.

There is a dog sitting on my front step. She thinks she lives here. She doesn't but she won't leave! (I can't see any collar or tags) pic.twitter.com/XwG5K7Cz1d

— Diana Maliszewski (@MzMollyTL) April 15, 2017

It was around 6:00 p.m. or so on Saturday, after we had returned from a delicious dinner, that we spotted this little ShizTsu outside our door. She was barking, not in a vicious way, but in a plaintive, "let me in" tone. Let me mention at this point that I've never owned a dog - my parents had dogs before I was born and after I moved out, so I have no experience dealing with dogs. I checked the Toronto Animal Services home page and it recommended taking the dog to a nearby shelter, but at this time, the shelters were closed.

I didn't know what to do. I brought her a bowl of water and some leftover pulled pork and rested it on the edge of the porch. Then, my husband and I walked around our neighbourhood to see if anyone was looking for a lost dog. They weren't. Thankfully, at around 8:00 p.m., the situation was resolved.

Update: about 2 hrs after dog 1st appeared, some people showed up &collected her. Either they were the owners or someone just got a free dog

— Diana Maliszewski (@MzMollyTL) April 16, 2017

I did not get a chance to speak much with the teen boy and older man that picked her up. By the time I opened the door, they had the dog in their arms and were walking away. I only had enough time to say that I was glad they had located her and that she had been here for about two hours. There was neither time nor opportunity for me to confirm that they were the true owners but the anxious-yet-relieved look on the youngster's face made me believe that it was their dog. It's a good thing I didn't take the dog away to a shelter, or they would not have been reunited.

Usually on this blog, I make an effort to connect what I write about here to education. A couple of tweets I read this past weekend stopped me from making any simplistic comparison.

Note to self: Stay off educator Twitter on Saturday mornings. 😔 I should've learned this lesson by now. These streets are dangerous. Sigh.

— melinda d. anderson (@mdawriter) April 15, 2017

@mdawriter Clearly Easter weekend just brings out more of the savior mentality in educators. Sigh.

— Jennifer Orr (@jenorr) April 15, 2017

 My students aren't little lost dogs needing to be rescued. I am no savior. The lesson is for me and about me - that I can choose to ignore things that happen, practically right on my doorstep, or I can do something about it. Kindness must be more than words. Action or inaction is a choice.

I also need to realize that my doorstep is a lot bigger than I envision. I've noticed lately that two books in my school library collection have been panned by others in the FNMI community (see recent tweets by Angie Manfredi, aka @misskubelik and Colinda Clyne aka @clclyne) . This has happened right at my Twitter doorstep. It'd be easier to ignore it or dismiss it as just one opinion. I shouldn't and I can't. I need to speak to the Aboriginal Center or an elder or someone like Jeff Burnham from Goodminds (www.goodminds.com) to make an informed decision about these books. The answer isn't always clear-cut but that doesn't mean that I should sit back and wait for things to resolve magically on their own. I feel bad about sick people but it's only now that I've finally decided to give blood (on Easter Monday at 5:00 pm) - my first time,and about time! I have to put my money where my mouth is and make my actions match my words.