Setting Lassie Free

There was a dog trapped in the wire cage fencing surrounding the inner machinations of the electrical system in our underground parking lot at school the other day.

I kept hearing wailing and whining while I was in my parked car. I thought someone left their dog in their car. I went to investigate. The dog actually stopped wailing every time I was close. It is dark in our underground parking lot. But finally, I saw the scraggly thing, face in the corner of the cage with its muzzle to the ground. I was horrified.

It is one thing to see a child in the inner city without breakfast or clean clothes, but it is another thing to see a dog caged in the underground parking lot. One just doesn’t see stray dogs on campus, let alone trapped.

I didn’t understand how the dog got into the cage. Images of serial killers and their abusive ways with animals raced through my head.

Then I did what any sane person would do. I looked to see how to open the gate. It wasn’t locked. So I let Lassie free.

Word had it that someone had called animal control.

Maybe it would have been better to have animal control deal with it. But I couldn’t bear to hear the howling for one second more.