This post has been written in my mind multiple times over the past few years . Have never managed to post it because I feel words can never do justice to the gratitude I feel for my Guardian Angel in a Pathani Suit. It still doesn't , but I felt that this story is more relevant than ever, given the current climate.
A few years ago, on a Friday morning, we took our dog Rusty for a nice walk in the desert. Something he loved doing and we obviously loved everything that made him happy. He spotted what looked like camping litter and ate some of it. And that is when our fun family walk became a nightmare. It turned out to be poison laced food and he started getting seizures. We drove immediately to our usual vet, but they were closed since it was a holiday. My cellphone didn’t work and husband wasn’t carrying his. There was not a soul in sight . Finally we found a cleaner who was kind enough to make a call to the Vet's emergency number. There was no response. We didn’t know if it was sensible to keep waiting and so rushed him to another vet. Same story there. Rusty was dying in our car and I am sobbing uncontrollably because I knew we have almost lost him. This vet hospital is an affluent neighbourhood, a few people walking / driving outside at this time. But it was a labourer from Afghanistan - an amazing human being in a Pathani suit that came to our rescue. Seeing our plight, he gave his cellphone to my husband and asked him to keep it until we had dealt with the situation. He gave his friend’s number and asked us to reach him once we were done. This was probably around 8:15 am and we could reach out to him only at around 3:30 PM, after Rusty had crossed over. He didn’t call us even once in between to ask for his phone. When we met him at 4 PM, my husband offered him some money since we had made a few calls from his phone. His immediate response was “ Did your dog make it ?”. When my husband told him what happened , he says"that was for his soul then “ and refused to take the money. If not for this guy I don’t know.....I really don’t know what would have happened to Rusty. Thanks to him, we have the comfort that Rusty got medical intervention at the earliest and the vet did her level best to save him. There is not a single day that passes that I don’t think about this soul. It’s a shame , in our grief , we forgot to take his number. So I hope all the blessings I send him everyday counts.
Most labourers in this part of the world are seen as people who dislike dogs. The assumption is that they fear dogs and their religion may not allow it and so they hurt dogs. But its our fear that makes us assume they hurt them or won't go out of their way to help animals. For us, personally, nothing can top this gesture. Because he did not bat an eye lid before offering help and stayed genuine until the very end. This incident also taught me how to be there for the humans, even if you want to be there just for the animals. He couldn’t have helped Rusty without helping us.
Guardian Angels and learnings come in unexpected ways. The other learning from this whole experience was how to have an open mind when we meet people . Our subconscious fears stop us from seeing kind hearts. If only we looked beyond our biases , we would have many more people supporting us in our pet causes, no pun intended :-). And we would never have to walk alone , unless we choose to .
"Every Person , place and thing on this planet is interconnected with love. I am at home in the Universe"-Louise Hay