there was a guy named joe.
he was just a guy.
he tried to be a nice guy and to get along with everybody, but in today’s angry and resentment filled world, this often was not as easy as it might be.
one afternoon joe was walking down the road and he saw a dead dog lying in the road.
the poor dog, joe thought.
and then he thought, i wonder who it belonged to.
there was a house on the other side of the road, an ordinary looking house painted gray, with red trim, and it was the only house in sight.
joe thought maybe the dog belonged to the people in the gray house, so he went over and knocked on the door.
a man answered the door. he was an ordinary looking man but he looked mean and angry.
yeah?
there is a dead dog lying in the street, joe started to explain. i thought maybe -
what the flip do i care, the man asked.
i thought maybe it belonged to you…
i don’t have a dog, i have never had a dog, i am never going to have a dog, get the flip out of my life, absalom, and if you come back here bothering me again i will kill you.
and with that the angry man slammed the door in joe’s face.
joe went back to the dead dog. he shook his head. he was not entirely unused to the level of anger the man had shown, but he was still always a little surprised by it, being such a nice guy himself.
he proceeded to do what he realized he should have done to begin with - call the local emergency number.
emergency, can i help you, a female voice answered.
yes, i found a dead dog in the street, joe said.
does the dog’s body provide a threat to anybody, or is it impeding traffic?
um - i suppose it could, but there is no traffic that i can see.
would you mind moving the dog out of the street so that is not impeding traffic? is it your dog, by the way?
i suppose i could do that. joe said. and it is not my dog and i do not know whose it is.
thank you, sir. the voice took a slightly friendlier tone, perhaps realizing from joe’s attitude that he was not going to argue about anything.
please hold, sir, i will connect you to someone who can assist you.
joe waited. the sight of the dog continued to fill him with sadness.
another female voice interrupted his reverie. animal rescue, can i help you?
yes, i found a dead dog in the street.
is it your dog?
no, and i never saw it before.
is it lying in the middle of the street?
yes, but i am going to move it on to the sidewalk like i told the other lady.
very good. we will be there n a few minutes.
i’m not sure what street this is -
we know where you are,sir. just hang tight.
the line went dead. joe looked around. i might as well move the dog he thought.
the dog was heavier than he thought. it was not bloodied, but joe wished he had something to wash his hands off with.
he was wiping his hands with a handkerchief when he heard a voice.
it was the hoarse voice of an old man. joe looked up and saw a stoop shouldered man in a gray overcoat that looked too heavy for the weather. the man wore an old fashioned cloth cap but the man himself had an unlined face and looked more ageless than old.
that was a fine thing you did, young fellow, the ageless man said. i saw and heard the whole thing. a fine thing, in the old-fashioned way. we need more people like you, people who will stand up and be counted and do the right thing, like the men who fought at valley forge and iwo jima.
saw and heard the whole thing? joe thought. he had not noticed the man until he heard his voice.
out loud he said, all i did was call about a dead dog. and i never fought at valley forge or iwo jima or anywhere else.
be that as it may, the man said - but look here , here are the authorities.
that was fast, joe thought, and he turned and saw what looked like a small ambulance coming up the road.
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