THE STORY OF RIDDICK
Riddick
I met Riddick for the first and last time on Jan 25, 2007. It was a cold 13 degrees,
clear, starry night. I looked up at the sky, seeing the all familiar constellation Orion.
I was thinking how cold the night air was. I walked down a gently sloping lawn
towards a dark and lifeless trailer. There, not ten feet from the front door was a
makeshift dog house painted a bright blue. The first thing the beam from my
flashlight caught was a huge heavy gauged chain leading into the dog house. The
chain was on a stake at one end and the other was wrapped around Riddick's neck.
This was my first encounter with this boy. He did not greet me with a wagging tail
nor did his soft brown eyes look at me pleadingly for help to escape this man made
hell. He had a soft white coat sprinkled with tan. His pads on his feet were pink. He
was young, less than a year old. He had committed a crime through no fault of his
own, he was born He did not choose his owners, they chose him. Why? Did they fall in
love with a cute puppy? Was it their intention to make him a family member?
Riddick's demise came when his owners could no longer commit to each other, much
less him, and both left the trailer and him behind. These two people were at the
residence sporadically picking up belonging they thought to be important to them.
Passing within two feet of a dog wagging his tail, begging for attention and yet
unseen. How does this happen? Riddick will never know the warmth of a home on a
cold night, nor the love of a family, or what a full tummy feels like after a meal. His
lifeless body lay there. Frozen to the ground, inside the small, blue, makeshift dog
house. Emaciated to the point you could count every rib and notch on his backbone.
How insignificant he had become in the lives of his owners. To walk by a starving dog
to pick up personal belongings makes me wonder if these two people even feel
remorse.
Tears came to my eyes for Riddick. His life should have been so much more than
what it was. I thought of my own dogs. How loved they are and how they bring me so
much joy. Riddick was never given that chance. As I walked away from the site of his
death, I vowed that he would never be forgotten and everyone I know, would know
Riddick He was a victim, his mercy was left in the care of two miserable human
beings who failed him when he needed them. And with the last wag of his tail as he
curled himself in that small house and closed his eyes for the last time, his thoughts
were on the ones he loved, hoping they would soon return so he could see them one
more time and try to make them understand that he needed and loved them, no
matter who or what other people thought of them GOODBYE RIDDICK, go now into
the arms of the angels.
Jan Siener.
