—Don’t touch me…I can’t take it anymore…» her every glance seemed to whisper. She lay curled up in a small, half-dead ball, hiding her emaciated paws under her skinned, inflamed body. When I first saw her, it seemed to me that in front of me was not a dog, but the shadow of a once living being.
Her skin was almost furless, all red, covered with sores and dry crusts. Where once there had been a bushy tail, now there was a thin stump with sparse patches of dirty fur. The eyes… I’ll never forget those eyes. They were cloudy, filled with pus and tears, but there was still a tiny spark in the depths, as if she was still waiting for someone to reach out.
I sat down next to him, slowly, afraid to scare him.
«My little girl…» the words came out of her mouth, and I didn’t know if she could hear them.
She flinched slightly, but did not raise her head. She didn’t even respond to my touch, as if she had long since stopped believing that hands could be warm and kind.
The vet later said that she had severe demodicosis, exhaustion, eye inflammation, anemia. She had been starving for a long time. Her body was fighting for life, but she was almost exhausted.
«How is she still alive…?» I whispered to the doctor.
«It’s based on a miracle. And maybe… on hope,» he looked at me as if he was passing an invisible baton from her to me.
I talked to her all the way home, even if she didn’t look up.
«You’re not alone anymore. I’m near. We’ll make it…» she repeated over and over, like a spell.
At home, I laid her on a warm blanket. She didn’t eat or drink, just lay there, breathing heavily. Sometimes she shuddered slightly, as if in a dream she returned to those terrible places where she was beaten, persecuted, where cold and hunger became familiar companions.
That night, I sat next to her and listened to her breathing. Every breath was like a small victory, every exhale was like a tiny loss. I knew that maybe this night would be crucial.
«Just don’t leave, do you hear? You’ll have a life yet. A warm house, delicious food, a soft pillow. And hands that will never rise to strike,» I said, squeezing her skinny paw.
Sometime in the morning, she turned her head towards me for the first time. And in her bleary eyes, I saw something that made my heart beat faster—she heard me.
The next morning, the vet arrived by himself. He carefully examined her, prescribed drops, ointments, injections. The treatment had to be long and painful. I was preparing for what would be a struggle every day.
She ate very little for the first few days. Sometimes she just refused the bowl, and I fed her from the palm of my hand, drop by drop, so that at least something would get into her stomach. Every time I approached, she seemed to tense up, preparing for a blow. It wasn’t until a week later that her body stopped shaking from my movements.
Her treatment was difficult — every injection, every wound treatment, every bathing in therapeutic shampoo was difficult. She whined softly, and sometimes she just stared at one point, as if she had gone somewhere deep into herself so as not to feel pain.
One evening, when I was oiling her sore ears, she suddenly put her head on my lap. Just like that. Without fear. Without trying to pull away. This was the first sign that the ice had begun to melt.
A month has passed. The fur slowly began to grow back, and the sores were healing. Her eyes became clearer, and an interest in life appeared in them. She began to get up little by little, approach the bowl, and even occasionally wag her tail, even if it was still weak and sparse.
The most touching moment was when I first heard her bark. It was quiet and hoarse, but it was barking—not out of fear, but because someone had come outside the door. She was guarding her new home.
It’s been three months since I saw her for the first time. She’s still skinny, but she’s not a shadow anymore. She runs to me in the morning, happily tapping her paws on the floor, and her eyes light up with something they didn’t have before—trust.
And every time I look at her, I think:
«But someone once just threw it away. I decided that the life of this little creature is worthless.»
But now she knows that her life is valuable. And she is loved.
➕
