At three in the morning, the motorcyclist discovered a Golden Retriever chained to a bridge with a letter that read, “Please don’t let her suffer; I can’t afford to give her a peaceful ending.”
The dog was about eight years old. Her belly was swollen with a growth the size of a softball. She was having trouble breathing.
Beside her and her favorite toy, an old stuffed duck that had been cherished for years, someone had left a bowl of water.
However, all was about to change as the second note was slid into her collar.
“I heard whimpering while I was stopping my bike to inspect the chain. I had never seen anything like that in all the years I had been traveling.
When she noticed me coming, this lovely dog, who was dying and abandoned, continued to barely wag her tail.
There were two messages around her neck.
The first mentioned suffering and hopelessness.
The second was not like the first. Pencil handwriting by a child on a notebook page.
“Please save Daisy.” All I have left is her. Although I am aware that angels ride motorcycles, Dad says she must leave. I hoped you would track her down. Her collar contains $7.43, which is all of my tooth fairy money. Don’t leave her to die by herself.
— Madison, age seven
However, what was written right away made me shiver because the true owner wasn’t who we believed.
The narrative of a child’s love and her $7.43—all of her tooth fairy money—was continued in the second letter.
Daisy’s real owner, Madison’s father, had passed away. Grief-shattered, he felt empty and alone, certain that he had failed at all he held dear.
This was the behavior of a man on the verge, distraught and unable to act otherwise; it was not cruelty.
I whispered Daisy’s name, and she looked up faintly. As a final gesture of trust, her tail beat softly against the ground.
After wrapping her in my jacket, I rode my motorcycle in the direction of the closest veterinarian facility.
The workers there hurried over to her with kindness and consideration. Calm words, delicate hands.
Calls were placed, assistance showed up, and Daisy at last got the love and attention she was due.
Instead of the chilly concrete, she lay on a cozy blanket surrounded by love.
You could sense that she recognized that she was at last safe despite her vulnerability.
